A lot can happen in seven months
by ForeverAPirate
Summary: Alfred, a rich socialite with a bit too much confidence in his dating skills is dared to go out with the grumpy loner Arthur for 7 months to prove he's good boyfriend material. Neither, however, expected this to turn into something more than just a dare. US/UK fluff, with splatterings of Sp/lov and Fr/Can AU, warnings for language.
1. Prologue

A lot can happen in seven months

Some people assume that money can solve all problems; issues and ills can vanish with a brandishing of a well-stocked credit card and that the virtual money contained within can make a person comfortably and deliriously happy enough to last them for their lifetime. Money can buy one anything, from the food needed to survive to a large house to live in.

They are right, of course.

Not about the amount of money, certainly not, but the money itself. That is true, as unfortunate and first world it is to say. For example, you may be all very well and good snoozing under a tree in a field beside the love of your life, breathing in fresh, clean and free air, but without the clothes on your back and the food in your belly that nice happy thought turns to one of a bitter, cold and painful reality. One can be happy on little, and one can be happy on a lot. A bitter, twisted kind of hollow happiness, but happiness nonetheless.

No one, however, can be happy on nothing, for they'd be dead.

Some people, like Alfred F Jones, are this hollow kind of happy, the kind of person whom has grown up spoon-fed a gold guided sort of life and considers this to be true happiness as he's known no other. And it's this sort of person who can only be shown true happiness when they experience a situation other than one they're used to, one that actually pushes past the flimsy fabricated walls of expensive, hand bought happiness. If you could get everything you wanted, would you be happy? Happiness is more than something bought and sold; money is not the only thing that makes the world go round. No matter how hard headed and self-centred a person, everybody deserves to know this. Being abnormal, being socially different and liking things that are not considered to be the norm, like Arthur Kirkland, does not mean that they are an unhappy person. Just a different one.

Appearances can be altered and changed with money; good looks are sculpted and bought. But no one is without an appearance and appearances aren't the only thing that we as humans are.

Let's take a dirty, second rate club as our example; it's cheap, tacky and falling apart, but it's still a place where many great things have the potential to happen. Happiness can be borne easily from this quick hit of adrenaline found in a few watery beers, loud music and an overall cheap night out, a horrible outside doesn't mean a horrible inside.

So what would happen to a person when they meet their opposite, physically as well as in everyday outlook? Would you take this opportunity, if it came along? Of course not, not unless you were forced to as it goes against everything that person knows. Let's start to feel a little bit sorry for Alfred then, who is currently stuck inside this rundown little club on the wrong side of his town.

You still have to pay to get in, however.

* * *

><p><strong>-AN-<strong>

**Why hello this is my first ever US/UK and at the moment it's just a prologue, the rest of the chapters will be written with a different narration, sometime switching to the characters POVs. Hopefully, I'll try to make this a multi chapter fic, so any reviews or criticisms are longed for and would really help. Hope you enjoyed reading, future chapters will be a lot bigger ^u^**

Edited: Radical shake up people, let's get this story going! Trying something new, let me know if you think it works?


	2. Meeting

Meeting

Though the place wasn't his ideal spot for a great night, Alfred loved these wind -down days. Work was stressful, boring and tedious; any way to relax and release his pent up stress was like a Godsend he'd grab instantly. He hadn't been this tipsy in a while, his workload had picked up so suddenly recently that it just wasn't practical to go out and get completely drunk; unable to work the next day. He _needed _more nights out, he used to go to clubs so often just earlier this year that he felt as though some part of his youth had just up and died without telling him, leaving him feeling like a grumpy teenager trapped in a middle aged man's life and job. Though if Neil hadn't known the bouncer, allowing them to sneak in underage, this certainly wasn't somewhere he'd choose for his blessed night of fun. He was jolted out of his fast approaching bad mood by his lifelong fellow trouble maker, Jake.

"Yo, earth to Alfred, you've not gone and died on me have ya?" He laughed and slung his arm around Alfred's shoulder, sloshing his drink a little on his friend's arm.

"The real question there is, what girl is the pansy eyeing up now?" Another friend, Tony asked, nudging into the conversation from the crowd that had swept him away slightly. His normally obsessively straight clothes were crumpled from presumable where his latest dancing partner had grabbed him. Luckily, he seemed too drunk to notice.

Jake jeered and poked Tony in the rib. "Leave little Alfred alone, he's too precious."

Alfred laughed and took another gulp of the watery cocktail in his hand, seemingly oblivious to the subtle jibes that were being sent his way.

"I'm just thinking."

Jake cocked an eyebrow. "Don't hurt yourself bro, we kinda need you for that meeting on Monday."

"Oh come on! We've just left work and you're on about it already? What's wrong with you!" Tony swayed a bit and leant on a passer-by's shoulder before being shoved back off again. He didn't seem to notice "We were having a great time before just now!"

"I'm still having a great time" Alfred grinned. "Though, we haven't done anything good yet, and I'm nowhere near drunk enough"

Jake frowned. "Yeah, let's get to the goods! Tony, go grab your boyfriend and let's start this shit!"

"He's not my boyfriend!" Tony yelled before plucking another man from the swaying crowd around them. With effort he pushed the young man forward until all four of them were stood in a circle. "He's pissed already? Jesus Christ Neil..."

The man named Neil looked up and gave a happy lopsided grin before leaning on Tony's shoulder to nibble jokingly on his ear. Alfred and Jake howled with laughter while Tony tried to push him off, unsuccessfully.

Tony, Neil and Jake were Alfred's friends from work and all around 19 years old, with Jake being the oldest by a few months. His dad ran the business and had given Alfred a top job as soon as he had become of working age and had graduated school, and Neil and Tony's dads, who worked for the Jones', had also done the same for them. Jake was a friend whom Alfred had met in high school, stayed in touch with after and then got a job for. Tony was a bit temperamental at times, Neil more stoned or drunk than anything else and Jake a bit too far up his own ass, but they were good friends to Alfred and that was all he really cared about. The fact that they had all managed to get high paying jobs for doing barely anything due to their connection to Alfred was only a small part of their friendship, or so Alfred liked to think.

"So, what should we do today then, Tony?" Neil asked, though his slurring made it nearly impossible to understand exactly what he was saying.

_What we do every night Pinky... _Alfred snickered to himself before looking over at Tony, who was currently glaring at him.

"Find something funny Alfred?" He asked while taking another sip of whatever drink he had now. They were all quite drunk, really. "And why the fuck are you asking me, idiot? Go slobber on someone else." He moved away from Neil, who had started to dance with a leggy blonde, to stand nearer Alfred before speaking again.

"We should do truth or dare, that was great last time."

Jake cheered his agreement whilst Alfred puffed up his chest. "Brilliant! I always win at these!"

Jake sneered. "Always? Nah, don't think so."

Alfred's grin, if possible, seemed to widen. "Course I do! I always do anything because heroes never lose, especially to stupid little dares!" Jake rolled his eyes and huffed at the 'stupid little dares' part.

"Bet I can make you lose!" Neil had stumbled back into the middle of the circle to stand near them all again. "I bet there's got to be something you can't do."

"There isn't." Alfred insisted. "I've never failed a dare yet and I'm sure not gonna plan on losing one now!"

"Wanna bet on that?"

Alfred smirked. "Fine! I bet that whatever you dare me to do, I'll do it!"

"No matter what it is or how long for?" Tony inquired. This was becoming more interesting than the other times they'd played.

"Yup!" Alfred nodded and continued, "Well, go on then. Dare me!"

Neil snickered and pointed off into the throng of people. "Go and strip dance on the bar by the old man with the glasses."

"Oh fuck that!" Tony pushed Neil away again. "You've gotta do something better than that, asshole, he's practically given his soul to us and all you tell him to do is dance with a sleezy old man? That's not a fucking punishment! We'll have forgotten by tomorrow!"

Neil frowned. "Not if we film him." He attempted to slide his phone out of his skinny jeans, only to drop it painfully onto the hard floor.

Tony yelled in frustration, not that he sounded any different, they were all yelling to be heard anyway, and pushed Neil so he toppled headfirst into another dancer. Neil didn't protest, either he didn't mind being forcibly shoved into a large woman's stomach or he was so drunk that he had actually no idea what was happening.

"Okay, he's not playing anymore." Said Tony, glancing up from the mess Neil was making of trying to retrieve his phone from the jungle of stilettos and boots. "I'll think of something more suitable and amazing..."

"No, wait a minute, I've got something." Jake said, glancing into the crowd around them. "We've got no time limit, right?"

Alfred tried to follow his line of sight to see what he was looking for, but gave up and turned to Tony who had lost interest with being kept waiting and had started to dance again. "Do I get a reward?" He was actually looking forward to this, but a little incentive wouldn't hurt.

"$100 each?"

Alfred pouted. "That's not that much."

"You don't need money anyway! Besides if we win, that's $100 each for us and I need a new suit."

"You don't need money either." Alfred pointed out. Tony scowled then shrugged. "I'd rather spend your money than mine."

"Okay, got it!" Jake turned back to face them and placed a hand on both of their shoulders. He was slightly smaller than Alfred, but always managed to command his attention somehow, probably due to the way he carried himself and treated others. Like the other three, if Jake wanted something, he would get it, by any means he could think of.

"See that man over there by the far wall on Tony's right?"

Alfred stood up onto his toes and craned his neck to see who he was supposed to be looking at.

Jake sighed and added, "The one with the fucking huge eyebrows; he's honestly not hard to miss."

Alfred twisted a little more and finally spotted him. Even in this dim lighting, his eyebrows stood out. They were huge! Alfred though, like, giant fluffy caterpillars or something.

"Alfred!"

"Hmm, yeah?"

"So?" Jake crossed his arms and smirked. "I dare you to go out with him." Alfred gave a surprised, (but manly), squeak but Jake ploughed on ignoring him. "For seven months, and no less. You have to be the perfect boyfriend for seven months, so don't get dumped or the deal's off."

Now, Alfred wasn't gay, but he considered himself bi and open to anyone really. But that guy? He looked as though he'd be boring, grouchy, and moany, why on earth him?

Alfred voiced these inner moanings out loud, trying to block out Tony's whoop of glee.

Jake rolled his eyes. "Because, everyone knows that you can't hold down a relationship for more than two months at the most before getting bored and dumping the other, or them dumping you for being a piss poor boyfriend. Also, he looks like the most difficult person to be with in here, seeing as he's on his own and scowling at anyone who comes too close. Should be interesting."

"But why seven months though?"

Jake shrugged. "It's my birthday; it was the first thing that I thought of." He smirked before continuing. "Why, is it too long? Does this mean that you admit that you _can't _get anyone and anything you want?"

Tony cheered again and clapped Jake on the back while Alfred lamented his fate. Him? Of all the people or things to dare him with in this room, Jake chose him?

"Fine, I'll do it." _Curse his stupid pride. _"I'll prove I can do this, you just watch and be prepared to get your wallets ready for seven months time."

Jake grinned in triumph and stuck his hand out for Alfred to shake.

"You have to get proof though, you can't just say you're going out with him, we need photos." Jake added. "Otherwise, you could be lying that you were rejected."

"I'm not gonna get rejected! I'll manage to keep him for seven months, don't worry about that!"

"Then start smiling, sunshine. No one's gonna want you with that attitude." He nudged Tony, who had relocated Neil from across the dance floor to update him. "Better get your wallet out, this is gonna be over fast."

Alfred gave him the finger. "Ha ha, real funny. You won't be laughing when I actually go through with this."

"You seriously going to do this? Even if he says yes?"

"If it'll prove you wrong about my dating skills, then yeah. It's not like this is going to mean anything."

With that, he straightened up and started to force his way through the crowd before him to get the grumpy looking man in the corner, ignoring Tony's gleeful shrieks. He'd sobered up really quickly since before the daring had started, his anger at being treated like an idiot from his friends giving him a not so friendly smack round the head.

Sure he's not managed to have a proper long term relationship yet, but Jake was wrong about the boyfriend thing, he was a great boyfriend! He just got bored, he'd not found anyone interesting or intelligent enough to keep him satisfied for very long; most people he seemed to go for just ended up with the same flat, dull personalities as time went by. He wasn't looking for anything serious anyway, so why start should he start trying hard to find someone special?

By the time he had managed to get to the man in the corner, Alfred had become quite determined to win this stupid dare, just to prove Jake wrong if not anything else. Upon coming closer to him, Alfred could also start to make out the man's appearance more, and found that he looked even more strange and out of place in the club than he did from further away.

He was wearing jeans and something that looked like something his granddad or dad would wear inside for a shirt. He certainly wasn't dressed for clubbing, but why or what he was doing here in the first place wasn't important at the moment. He was also of average height, about an inch or two shorter than Alfred and had a massive scowl on his face. His eyebrows, noticeable even from a distance, were huge, just as Alfred though they would be; they were covered by his mop of scruffy blond hair but still stood out. Alfred had to grudgingly admit though, that he wasn't a complete disaster face wise, even with what looked like two furry aliens growing on his face.

"Hi!"

The man didn't look up, but continued to stare (scowl) somewhere off into the middle of the dance floor.

Alfred tried again louder and took his shoulder. "Hi there!"

This time, the man looked up and cocked an eyebrow at him. The first thing Alfred noticed, were his eyes. Damn they were green; they seemed to glow slightly, probably accentuated by the strobe lighting as it pulsed past in time to the beat. But still, they looked mesmerising, like you could sink into them if you stared too long.

"Yes?" He mouthed his answer, the music too loud to hear him.

"I'm Alfred; wanna tell me who you are?"

He grinned and stuck his hand out. The other man just stared at him, confusion slowly creeping onto his features.

Alfred tried again, almost bellowing this time. "I'm Alfred, and you are?"

The man shook his head.

Alfred groaned and gave up.

"Okay, fuck this!"

With that he grabbed hold of the man's wrist, catching his look of surprise and started to weave in and out of the crowd to drag him outside through the back door. Finally outside, Alfred released his hostage and let out a sigh before turning to him.

"Finally huh? It was too loud in there to talk." He laughed. "Well hi, I'm Alfred F. Jones." His throat was dry and hurting after a few hours of yelling to be heard and his voice sounded unnaturally loud in the quiet night air, but he grinned and stuck out his hand again at the other, who now looked confused, annoyed and suspicious all at once.

Finally, the man frowned, as if trying to sense any ulterior motive, but finding seemingly none he stuck out his hand to shake Alfred's. His hands were rough and smaller than his own, but his grip strong.

"I'm Arthur, Arthur Kirkland."

* * *

><p><strong><span>AN:<span>**

**Whoa, four pages on my computer looks a lot smaller on here O.o I'll leave it here for now, the next chapter will be from Arthur's point of view ^-^ I hope this was a lot better than the prologue, it didn't really do my idea justice but it was needed, so to anyone who's read to here, thank you! *hands cookie* Next chapter should be up...whenever I have the time, but I'll try to get it up soonish and a bit longer :P If anyone has any questions, please PM me and leave any form of critique in the reviews section. **

**Thanks again for reading, hope you enjoyed it!~**

Edit: *wheeze* This was such a terrible chapter, why did I ever allow myself to write anything.

How did I get followers. To my old readers, I commend you.


	3. Hours earlier

**Hours earlier**

Having just arrived home from work, Arthur was now busy relaxing on the sofa in his shared flat, a cup of freshly brewed tea in one hand and a TV remote in the other. This week had been shit. Too busy, too noisy, too fast, and far too demanding for Arthur's taste. He was working in a large cooperate company here in the States as part of an exchange internship programme, yet was being treated like a child on work experience week. He was a _qualified _individual, with his own house and car in the UK and quite a high wage to pay for it with. How the company's head office thought he was only capably of running menial errands whilst doing his own _and _actual employee's left over work was beyond him. He groaned and sunk further into the sofa thinking about it, flicking through the channels with disinterest, trying to find something watchable.

Being so deeply involved in the task at hand, he failed to realise in time that his flat-mate Francis had crept up behind him and was currently embarking on exploring Arthur's body with his hands. Arthur, now unfortunately used to this, just swatted the hands away after lobbing the remote at Francis' head.

"Sod off, Frog."

"But mon ami, you're so tense tonight." Francis murmured in his ear as a response, "Lucky for you it's the weekend, non?"

Arthur hummed in answer and settled back down, allowing Francis to massage his shoulders but giving him a glare if he strayed too far below what was comfortable. Arthur knew Francis from secondary school back when he was in England. Ever since he'd moved from France, the bloody Frog had latched on and hadn't let go, no matter how hard Arthur tried to get rid of him at first. He was a pest Arthur couldn't rid out of his life, but he found that all in all he didn't mind the constant company and was actually rather glad of the Frenchman being close to him. (Not that he'd ever tell any of this to Francis though.) They'd both gone to the same university together too; Arthur for history and English while Francis opted for history and art. Somehow they'd also ended up with rooms next to each other in the student halls, at which Arthur was mostly irritated and sometimes glad for. It was here that they'd met their other close friend, Gilbert.

Gilbert was a newly arrived German student whom they'd met in their fresher's year (though he would preach his Prussian heritage to anyone who dared ask where he was from). He took a business management course and, contrary to his loud and overt personality, was incredibly skilled with figures. He'd lived in the floor above Arthur and Francis in the halls but hadn't got along with his flatmates, a large, tall Russian by the name of Ivan and a quick witted and sharp tongued Chinese man called Yoa and so had ended up spending most of his time with them. To Arthur's chagrin, he found himself stuck with these two throughout his university life after he and Francis made firm friends of the other. Though Arthur was glad of them both and secretly enjoyed their company, they then followed him into his career as well.

It was Arthur who found the job, fresh out of uni at only 21. The job involved working in an office analysing historic documents from museum archives then publishing anything worthwhile as a good story article for a history magazine. The dream job he had always wanted was his, History and English combined. Unfortunately, it had also attracted his French companion, though as an illustrator drawing and reconstructing images from fragments of historical pieces to make them interesting and lifelike for their audience. Gilbert got a position working in the finance department the company also shared with a listed buildings agency, channelling where and how the company spent and received money and where seemed good to invest and sell.

The three had been transferred to the American New York branch of the company as part of their graduate scheme, due to being recent university graduates with fair marks, apparently to 'allow them to gain a broader understanding of the company workings through a foreign partner branch' and to learn skills which they'd then give back to the head company back in the UK. The position was only temporary, hence Arthur being stuck with sharing a tiny, dirty, flat with Francis while Gilbert stayed with a German cousin of his living in the city.

Francis, who was undeterred from the death glares being sent his way on occasion from his companion, carried on massaging his friend's shoulders happily. "You'll feel better after we go out tonight mon petit, I've found this wonderful new club close by that we can visit."

Arthur shook his head and stood up, picking up his now empty mug before walking towards their tiny kitchen.

"I'm not going out tonight."

"What? Why not?"

"Too tired."

"Too tired?" Francis followed him and leant against the table as he washed up. "I've done the same work you have and I'm still okay for going out, don't wuss out on us tonight Arthur, it's not like you."

Arthur huffed and started to dry up the fast growing stack by the sink. "One, I've done more proper work than you have. Flirting with anything that moves for half of the day doesn't actually count as work." He ignored Francis' grumble of love being work and carried on. "Second, I don't like going out as much as you do, I haven't stayed in and watched telly for ages as I've been getting back later than you have. You don't need me there anyhow; Antonio and Gilbert should be enough."

Francis chuckled while tucking a lock of his blond hair behind his ears. "Antonio's not coming; he's got a 'special date' planned tonight with Lovino."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Antonio was a Spanish born colleague at the US office the three had grown rather fond of, Francis and Gilbert more so, and Lovino was his very temperamental boyfriend of three years. Antonio actually managing to get a date out of the Italian was extremely rare indeed, Romano normally would protest at anything publically or privately romantic.

Francis nodded and continued. "He's wanted to do it for ages; he's finally managed to hold him down long enough to agree."

"Even so, I'm not going." Arthur ignored Francis' whine of protest, (he was very good at ignoring Francis) and went back into the living room, Francis trailing behind. Arthur sat again and Francis sat in an armchair opposite, chin resting on a fragile steeple made by his hands, looking uncharacteristically pensive. Having known Francis for many a year now, Arthur knew that whatever Francis had to say next, wouldn't be a good thing for him.

"Can you-"

"No."

"You haven't even heard what I have to say yet!" Francis protested.

"I don't need to hear your idiocy when I know what you're trying to do."

"Stupid rosbif, you're so cold to me. I was only asking if you could pick me and Gilbert up later this evening, obviously we can't drive ourselves home."

"Why can't you take a taxi?"

"No money." A smirk. Arthur knew that wasn't all, there had to be something else.

"How are you going to get there then?" Arthur countered, he didn't want to be dragged out in the middle of the night and babysit those two. Especially not Gilbert, his car hadn't quite recovered from last time.

"We'll walk there, it's not that far but I don't fancy walking home in the dark."

"It's dark now." Arthur countered.

"When it's darker. And hopefully, if all goes well, I'll be drunk too. I'll take some vodka from here and pre-drink at Gilbert's too."

Arthur, after thinking a while, nodded. "Fine, I'll give you a lift home, we don't want the female population of the area becoming impregnated as a product of your drunken urges."

Francis gave a gasp of pain and covered his heart with one hand. "You wound me Arthur, with your savage words."

Arthur just snorted at his response. "I'm picking you up at 1 though; I actually want to sleep tonight."

"1! Are you crazy, Non non non, two at least, mon chou."

"You have no right to make any demands from me when I'm doing you a favour, 1 is my only offe- did you just call me a cabbage?"

"1:30 then?" Ignoring Arthur's indignant call for an answer, Francis concentrated on putting on his best kicked puppy face, making sure to bat his baby blue eyes. After a few seconds, it seemed to work; Arthur crossed his arms and huffed.

"1:30 and no later, you French bastard. I have more to life than driving after you late at night."

Francis smiled and got up to kiss the other blond on the cheek before laughing at his blushed splutter. "Merci, mon petit~"

A few hours later, Arthur set off to retrieve his probably intoxicated friends from the club. Directions and name memorised, Arthur got into his car, cursed when he entered the wrong side, (again), and shivered slightly at the coldness of the night. It was starting to set into winter, frost beginning to appear sprinkled on the grass and cars in the early hours of the morning or late at night.

The club from the outside looked nothing special, shabby even in Arthur's opinion. It was squashed in the middle of an industrial estate, it was obviously an old converted warehouse and it was practically in the middle of nowhere, on the outskirts of town with no major shops or attractions around. One of the letters in the name of the establishment had broken lights, leaving it with the name PUL E instead of PULSE. Arthur chuckled, 'pull'*, what a fitting name for a night club. Yet, however remotely it was situated or however shabby it seemed, the place was packed. There was absolutely nowhere nearby to park as everywhere was in use, and so Arthur ended up having to park at least a 10 minute walk away from the place itself. Getting in if he needed to, to drag Francis and Gilbert away, wasn't going to be hard, he spied a back door to the club in an alley that had been stupidly left open and unguarded.

Digging out his phone from his coat pocket, Arthur hurriedly checked the time before calling Francis to let him know he was there. 1:40, the traffic this late at night with the new road works being in place had been surprisingly bad, allowing them an extra 10 minutes of whatever mayhem they were causing before they were forced to leave. Arthur thought this was fair enough.

The phone however, wasn't being answered. Cursing his bad luck for having drunken and irresponsible friends, Arthur dialled again and hopped from leg to another in an attempt to keep warm.

"Come on...you French bastard, pick up pick up pick up pick u- Francis! Took you long enough to answer, I'm outside the main entrance. "Arthur made a visible attempt at clenching his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering. "Get your arses out here now, making sure Gilbert is with you this time please, I'd rather not relive what happened last time if I can help it."

Francis, to Arthur sounded surprisingly sheepish. And quiet. "_Ah, mon ami, about that..."_

"Where are you? I can't hear any music."

"_We're no longer up the club Arthur..."_

"Francis..." Arthur growled. He wasn't in the mood for one of Francis' pranks; he was cold, tired, and now getting steadily more pissed off.

"_We're at the hospital."_

Arthur felt his blood run cold. "Wha-, why?"

Francis chuckled and Arthur could hear a screech of laughter from presumably Gilbert in the background. "_Antonio managed to knock himself unconscious on his little 'date' tonight."_

There was a rustle and a lot of noise, Gilbert had probably tried to make a grab for the phone.

"_Arthur!" _He had succeeded.

"_Kesesese, you _never _guess what Tony managed to do!"_

"Gilbert I really don't fucking care, tell me what happened quickly, if not, hand me back to Francis or someone else who will make coherent sense."

"_Psssh, PSMing are we? Calm the fuck down, grouch."_

"Gilbert..." Arthur all but growled at the phone, this was really not how he planned his Friday night.

"_Fine fine, sheesh. But it was awesome, I mean, only Antonio would actually be able to pull something like that off! He'd got into a fight with Lovino, bitch probably got pissy about jack shit again, and Tony tried to run after him and ran into a door. Says his foot caught on one of the chair legs. Knocked himself unconscious, on a fucking door!"_ Gilbert gave another screech of laughter and cut off from talking anymore. In the background, Arthur thought he could hear a nurse angrily asking him to keep the noise down. "_I mean, how hilarious is that?"_

"Wonderful Gilbert. Just wonderful, Antonio's unconscious due to head butting a door."

"_Not just the door, but the edge! I mean, how hard is that to see? The stupid idiot!" _Gilbert laughed again. "_God, I love him so much...Lovino just dropped him off here at reception, dumped him on the floor and told the helpdesk to 'take care of that tomato bastard' before walking off!"_

Arthur sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Poor Antonio, he's probably feeling awful, Gilbert was really not the person to see when you had just embarrassed yourself. He'd only make it worse. Lovino was probably too embarrassed as well, hence why he may not have stayed...

"Is he awake now?"

"_Yeah, he was awake when we arrived about 5 minutes ago; he's actually got stitches on his head. Keeps on blubbering about his precious Lovi, you can't get anything else out of him. This has actually made my life."_

"I'm sure it has." After the shock of finding out they were up hospital had worn off, Arthur realised something unpleasant. "When did you get the call from the hospital?"

"_Hmm, about 15 minutes ago? They went through his phone to get someone to collect him and called his most used contact and we were not far from it."_

"So, if you were asked 15 minutes ago, why did no one ring me to tell me not to come to PULSE?" He asked with a voice that was starting to get dangerously low.

"_Errr, Francis wants to speak now."_

A squeak of protest was heard from Francis before his voice came over the phone, sounding a little nervous. "_Hello Arthur, well you see, we kind of forgot to let you know..."_

"How could you forget? You were the one who begged me to come and get you!"

"_I do not beg, it's undignified." _Francis sniffed, _"Besides mon lapin, we were too caught up with the call from the hospital, we had more things to worry about, you can't blame us for that can you?"_

He could try. "How did you get there Francis?"

Arthur could almost hear him squirm. "_We got a taxi."_

"I thought you had no money, so I would have to come and collect you."

"_Well, I wanted to get you out of the house, you were so stressed mon cher, it would be good for you to be out even for a little bit! I knew that if you picked us up, you'd have to stay for a bit."_

_Deep breathing, Arthur old boy, deep breathing. "_So, you brought me out here on a lie just so you could get me to come drinking with you."

"_Er, oui?"_

"_Arthur? Arthur, are you still there? Arthu-"_

After almost throwing his phone on the floor in a rage and having stomped in a circle for a little bit to cool down, Arthur was sufficiently calm enough to think straight. He now had two options, he could go home now, go to bed and kill Francis in the morning, or he could go in the club and have a quick drink for his troubles. Unsurprisingly, he chose the latter.

Slipping in through the back door he had spotted earlier for the free entry, he made his way through the back corridor and into the main hall. He was really not dressed for this; tatty jeans and a slob top were not normally something one would wear clubbing. Spotting the bar, Arthur pushed his way through the throng of dancers to get to the counter. His eyes had got used to the dim lights now, and could see more easily. People of all ages were dancing, there was no room anywhere to stand, let alone sit, while massive speakers boomed overheard and lights swept the crowd making the whole experience of being in there dizzying.

After finally getting the barman's attention and acquiring a drink in a plastic cup, (he wasn't sure exactly what it was, he just asked for a pint of beer) Arthur tried to push his was back through the crowd to get to a wall near the farthest part of the hall, near to the door he'd just entered through. He could now easily get out after he finished his drink without being jolted about by too many people. The alcohol made him calm, made his gut and throat burn pleasantly and his mind tingle happily. He had needed this, just not the dancing side of going out. But, breaking off the happy thought with a grumble, he could have got this at home for free, he couldn't be here long, and he needed to drive back. He stared off into space, brooding Francis' and Gilbert's fate when next he saw them. He was so absorbed in revenge plotting in fact, that he didn't notice a man appear beside him and try to grab his attention.

"HEY!"

It was a yell, yet sounded faint over the din of the music and crowd, so faint in fact that Arthur thought he had imagined it, until he turned his head to see where it could have come from. There was a quick tap on his shoulder too, causing him to look up.

There was a young man standing beside him with a large grin on his face. He was only a few inches taller, wore glasses and even in the dim light, Arthur could see that he was wearing very expensive looking clothes. The man spoke again, inaudibly this time, and thrust a hand out to Arthur. What? Was he supposed to shake it? Was there something wrong with him, something on him? He knew he wasn't dressed right, but it wasn't something people would normally come over and point at. The man said something again, but Arthur shook his head. He couldn't hear a word he was saying. Suddenly, the man threw his hands in the air and grabbed hold on Arthur's beer free hand before dragging him through the crowd of dancers, ignoring his hostage's struggles to free himself.

Arthur found himself outside again, out the back door and into the cool, quiet night air. He could see the man more clearly now, lean and muscular, strong jaw and floppy blond hair. Blue eyes were hidden behind his glasses.

The man finally released his hand, which Arthur defensively brought up to his chest. What did he want with him? Before Arthur could work himself up into too much of a worry though, the man let out a deep breath and straightened up before grinning at Arthur happily. He seemed so carefree.

"Finally huh? It was too loud in there to talk." He laughed. "Well hi, I'm Alfred F. Jones."

That was it? He had been pulled out here for an introduction? Out of all the ways to be asked out, this was not one Arthur had ever come across before. However despite his misgivings and suspicion about the newly introduced Alfred, Arthur, much to his own surprise, found himself answering back.

"I'm Arthur. Arthur Kirkland."

Now having introduced himself, Alfred was actually a little unsure of what to do or say next, he hadn't thought this far ahead to be honest. He stuck his hands back into his pockets to protect himself from the cold air and shuffled his feet, playing with a small pebble whilst trying to think of his next move. He'd never actually done it like this before, kissing and then going was more his style, no strings attached and no awkward conversations. Arthur looked on, also unsure about what to do. Was that it? Nothing else? He breathed a sigh and turned to go back out of the alleyway and towards his car, when Alfred gave a sudden exclamation of laughter causing him to turn back.

"Sorry, I haven't done this before**." **He smiled. _Normally they're asking me out_**. **"But, can I like, buy you a drink or something later? I mean, you look kinda nice and I'd like to get to know you a bit more so..." He fell silent and rubbed the back of his head with one hand**.**

Ah. So he was being asked out. Arthur felt his face heat up a little. It couldn't hurt, he hadn't exactly been doing much in America other than work or sightseeing with Francis and Gilbert, but they normally liked to go off with Antonio to clubs rather than go to tourist attractions. It might be a good thing to branch out to another person; he didn't exactly have a large circle of friends. But this was unusual, at clubs normally one night stands were common place, being hit on like this seemed a little... odd. But the boy seemed like his heart was in the right place at least and Arthur felt in a 'try new things' kind of mood. It wasn't like anything more would come from this.

"Sure, do you want my number or something?"

Alfred looked up. "You're British?"

"Does it matter?"

"No no!" Alfred quickly brought his hands up and shook his head. "It's just that my grandpa was from Britain, just a nice accent to hear is all. It's kinda cool."

"Ah. Yours is nice too." It wasn't, Arthur was trying very hard not to tell him that 'kinda' wasn't a word. But, a gentleman wasn't the type to be judgemental of a person he'd just met.

Alfred grinned and passed his phone to Arthur. "Just put your number straight in! I like my accent the best myself."

Arthur hummed and took the offered phone before quickly punching in his number before handing it back. With a quick gulp he then finished the rest of his drink which hadn't fallen victim to Alfred's kidnapping of his arm**.**

"You do know I'm asking you on, on like a date, right?"

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Unless there is a completely different definition for 'can I have your number' here, then I am well aware of that."

Alfred gave an awkward laugh. "Well, cause you're not from 'round here and I didn't even ask you if you like guys or not so I thought I'd just make sure."

Arthur gave a small shrug. "Gender doesn't really bother me, the person matters more." With that, he threw down his plastic cup into the skip besides the door and pulled his collar up a bit higher.

"Sorry to cut this short Alfred, but I have to go; I have to get home before my flat mate does."

"Nah, sure dude, that's cool." Alfred assured him. "I'll text you later, okay? So we can go out to dinner or something soon."

_Of course you will. _"Yeah, I'll look out for it." Arthur gave a small smile of parting. "So, see you later Alfred."

"Yeah dude, definitely!" Alfred grinned again, this was going a lot better than he had expected. "Have a safe trip back."

"Thank you. Goodbye." With that, Arthur turned around and walked out to the direction of his car, not once looking back. After all, he wasn't ever going to see him again. Maybe that's why he'd felt it safe to give him his actual number.

Alfred watched Arthur walk away, back slightly hunched against the coldness of the wind. He wasn't _that _bad, a little uptight and quiet maybe but nothing that Alfred couldn't deal with in a person. He took his phone back out of his pockets and scrolled down through his contacts until he found Arthur's name. '_Arthur Kirkland.' _Alfred snorted. It sounded stuck up, even on his phone. That was so being changed to something cooler, like Artie or something. Or Artimus Prime. Tapping the buttons quickly, Alfred remembered with a sinking feeling that he hadn't managed to get a photo of him, and therefore had no proof to show Jake. Ah well, the phone number would have to do, he couldn't really just ask a random person he'd just met for a photo and ask them to make a pledge to become a loving boyfriend for seven months. No, Alfred would just have to work on getting him himself. He could have asked Arthur to play along and not really go through with it honestly, but Alfred actually wanted to prove to himself that he could be a good boyfriend if he tried. He didn't have to do the dare; it was his choice and it was something he was going to do right.

Alfred sighed. No matter how hard it would be, he was determined to make Arthur his boyfriend. He looked at the stars up above, they were slightly clouded over and hard to see, but they were there. Alfred had always liked the sky; the promise of endless possibilities had awaited his imagination in his childhood. He kicked the pebble he was playing with earlier against the wall, and headed back inside. He wasn't in much of a dancing mood anymore.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Boo<strong>

**They've met! YAY :D From now on, it'll be written with them together, starting the main story off XD Daymn, took a while to get here, I spent ages giving birth to this chapter D: So, I hope that you enjoyed my chapter update baby, and that it was significantly better than the last two, I really hope it was :3 Please leave a review with what you made of it, or how I can improve for next time Thanks very much for reading, and to anyone who reviewed or faved, I love you all! :D**

*** In the UK, 'pull' or 'to go on the pull', means to basically go looking for sex. Arthur finds it funny and fitting that that's what the signs reads for a nightclub. I didn't know if it was used this way in the US, so I thought I'd explain it here :D If there are any other words that you don't know or are unsure of, let me know! I don't know all the words that are different over the pond :P**

**I don't think I've made any major typos, but let me know if I have ^3^**

**Until next time, Heroes~ x**

Edit: *cries, such a long chapter to fix… *dies*


	4. First date

**First date**

For once, Francis had done the smart thing when dealing with Arthur and had stayed away the weekend to crash at Gilbert's cousin's house, probably to avoid dealing with an irate Arthur until he had calmed down enough not to kill him instantly upon setting foot back into their flat. All in all though, Arthur wasn't that angry with him, he'd got a beer and some exercise, not to mention the haphazardly scrawled and rushed note on the kitchen counter that told him that he'd have a Francis-free flat for the weekend. Utter bliss. He spent most of his Saturday morning sleeping in, then lazing about the rest of the time doing odd jobs here and there and catching up on some reading he had been meaning to do before work had got in the way of things.

That was what Arthur was continuing to do late on Sunday afternoon. He'd finally got around to emailing family back in the UK (not that he really wanted to, but felt that he had to if he wanted tea packets sent from home,) **(1)** and was now about to curl up on the sofa and read a good book. He pushed Jean-Luc, Francis' soppy, overly affectionate, and stuck up little bastard of a cat onto the floor (which earnt him a hiss and a threatening glare) before he straightened out the over throw and flopped unceremoniously down onto his side, tucking his feet up behind him. The cat, sensing that this nice warm human wasn't going to move for a while and was therefore okay to sleep on, jumped up and curled into a ball in front of Arthur's stomach. Arthur held the book in one hand, head resting against the sofa's arm rest whilst absentmindedly stroking the cat with the other hand, pausing to turn the page every so often. Francis had found the thing in their alley when he was emptying the bins, sopping wet, thin, and matted, curled up inside a tatty old box. God knows why he brought it inside and kept it, Arthur had detested the thing since he'd stepped on it by accident and had been bitten on its arrival. Once cleaned up, Jean-Luc proudly showed off a full coat of long, thick and often moulting fur, which often found its way into anything and everything, as well as being horrible to remove completely, which Arthur absolutely hated. Jean-Luc also had a tendency to try to mate with many of the neighbouring female cats and to Arthur's horror, become extremely attached to him. However, the cat had managed to worm his way into Arthur's affections, allowing him to be 'tolerated'. Arthur had insisted on getting him fixed though, much to Francis' dismay.

Arthur pushed the cat, which had climbed onto his side to sleep, back onto the sofa and was settling again when his phone buzzed from beneath him. Arthur cursed and wiggled, trying to fish his phone from his pocket on which he was currently laying on. The cat, thrice disturbed by the same person, stood up haughtily and trotted off, presumably to make a new home on Arthur's pillow, leaving hairs that would undoubtedly make him sneeze later on. Finally retrieving the phone, Arthur sighed and lay down again, clicked the phone on and squinted slightly from the screen's glare. He hadn't realised how dark it had got.

He had a text from an unknown number. Clicking open, Arthur began to read with apprehension, assuming it to be from Gilbert borrowing his cousin Ludwig's phone to prank text him.

Again.

However, much to his surprise, it was someone else.

_Hey artie! Its me Alfred from the other nite! Remember me? Haha ;)  
>Just wondering if you want to go out sometime soon for dinner or<br>something :P  
>Let me no!<em>

15th Oct. 2010 19:34

From: Unknown

Ah. Alfred, that bloke **(2)** from the club. Shit, he knew he shouldn't have given out his real number, just in case. Arthur had honestly forgotten about him, thinking it was only a joke or a drunken pick up line or something. He actually meant to meet up again with him? Arthur let out a puff of air and considered what to do next. He didn't actually know this man, he could be anyone. Didn't know his age, what he did for a living, or even if Alfred was his real name. But, that was what a date was all about, wasn't it? Getting to know the other? Arthur had been out with girls and boys before on dates, but usually when asked out in clubs; it was for one night stands or drunken advances that never went anywhere, not continuing it to the next day. Ah well, might as well go for it, at the end of the day he was rather bored of seeing the same people day in day out, and he had nothing to lose from meeting up once.

To: Grammar-less idiot

_My name is Arthur. Where you got 'Artie' from I honestly don't know.  
>And yes, I remember you; you were from the club, spouting your awkward pickup line. How could I forget? But no, I don't mind<br>meeting up with you, you seem rather interesting. I'm free whenever,  
>let me know.<em>

Arthur hit send with a smirk. How Alfred would react to that, he didn't know. Arthur saw no use hiding his personality if someone wanted to get to know him, especially seeing as he didn't even know this person. Really, had that man ever seen a dictionary? Placing his phone on the coffee table, picked up his book and carried on reading where he left off. As soon as he got into the reading frame of mind again though, his phone once again sounded. Reaching for his phone, he clicked it on and checked for a new message.

_Artie sounds a whole lot better than Arthur, its 2 stuffy XD  
>U sound like an old man dude :P Y sound so formal, its only txting! :  
>And cool, obvs im interesting, im the hero!1 U seem cool 2, apart<br>from being old lol :D How about i pick u up at 7 on Tuesday? We can go  
>out for dinner and shit :3<em>

15th Oct. 2010 19:38

From: Grammar-less idiot

Arthur huffed and sat up properly.

To: Grammar-less idiot

'_Dinner and shit', how eloquently put. I do not text like an old man, nor do  
>I sound like one, thank you very much. There is nothing wrong with speaking<br>correctly, even in a text. Now I am also starting to regret complimenting you,  
>Mr 'Hero', but Tuesday at 7 is fine.<em>

Arthur finished off the text with his address and clicked send, hoping that what he had just done was the right thing to do. Ah well, not much he could do about it now, was there? He got up and stretched, time to feed himself and then the flea bag, and then bath before finishing up the extra work he had to do before bed. Arthur rubbed his head, subconsciously trying to make his constant bed head lay flat. What an eventful (mundane) weekend.

Work on Monday had been the same dullness it always was. He'd come into work to find a muffin on his desk, (blueberry, his favourite flavour) courtesy of Francis as an apology. The muffin was eaten, no more was said on the matter and one more Frenchman was left to live another day. Arthur did his work, had his lunch thrown away by Gilbert, who proclaimed that it was too hazardous to be consumed, did more work, bought coffee for people he neither knew nor cared about, then went home after staying late again to find Francis had got back earlier and was contently strolling around naked. Just another usual day, nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Tuesday was the same, though luckily for Arthur, Francis had managed to keep his clothes on this time. Antonio was back at work and seemed none the worse for wear from his experience, though seemed ready to burst into tears anytime Lovino was mentioned. He had explained that earlier on in the 'date' with Lovino, Lovino had managed to spill some water on the floor and had refused to clean it up. It was this the Spaniard had slipped on later, which caused him to crash into the door and then be dumped at the hospital by a guilty and highly embarrassed Italian. Apparently unable to admit what had actually happened, they still weren't talking.

Arthur hadn't told Francis he was to meet Alfred on Tuesday night. He was a private person by nature; he hated people making a fuss or knowing things they shouldn't about his life, even close friends and family. Francis had a habit of not respecting this. At about 6, Arthur was in his room working himself into an early worry about what the fuck he was actually getting himself into, what he was going to wear, what if he didn't like him but had no way to get back early, what the fuck he was doing...

With a groan of frustration he flung open his wardrobe doors and started rummaging inside with fervour. He wasn't told to wear casual, or formal, did it matter? But what happened if they went to a fancy restaurant and he was just in jeans?

A few times, Arthur had stopped and asked himself why he cared so much, to which he honestly had no answer, telling himself that he just wanted to make a good first impression. Opting to just go with simple jeans and a smart casual shirt, Arthur gave up looking for something more impressive and flopped on his bed. If Alfred wanted him to be properly dressed, he should have said so. He stretched before getting up, and plodded into the kitchen to grab a quick cup of tea to calm himself down before he went out. He found that he was always like this on first dates, yet couldn't find it in himself each time to just calm down and relax. His problem, he supposed, was that he over analysed things too much.

Taking his tea, he sat in one of his and Francis' rickety dining chairs and blew in his mug to cool his drink down as Francis waltzed into the room.

"What do we want for dinner tonight, mon cher?" He whistled as he went, unaware or uncaring that his good mood was irritating his flatmate. Francis vehemently refused to let Arthur cook anything for him, if Arthur wanted to cook something for himself then Francis would happily let him destroy his stomach, but the fact of the matter was that he was not so happy about having his kitchen destroyed in the process. Needless to say, Francis did most of the cooking. He opened the fridge and tutted in annoyance at seeing it mostly bare.

"Your turn to shop" Arthur stated plainly as Francis started to forage in the also painfully bare cupboards.

"You could have told me!" He replied angrily. Muttering some angry French under his breath, he moved to the other cupboards only to find them in the same condition. Arthur shrugged nonchalantly and took a sip of his tea.

"I'm not eating anything tonight anyway; you'll only have to make something for yourself."

Francis turned to look at him, tin of cheap carrots discovered hidden away at the back triumphantly in his hand. "Why not, mon petit?"

Arthur looked away. "Just not hungry tonight."

Francis frowned and Arthur thought he saw a tiny glimmer of concern before he remembered that this was Francis, and was therefore not possible. "Are you sick?"

"No" Arthur was starting to grow uncomfortable, he knew where this conversation was going to end up and he knew that he had no chance of stopping it.

"If you are not sick, then why do you not want to eat? You haven't had anything since this morning. Unless, you are going out somewhere and therefore don't need to eat~"

"Shut up Frog, I can't believe you're perverted enough to actually watch me when I eat." Arthur growled. Francis just smirked.

"I'm sure I wasn't the only one in the office who heard Gilbert cry out in triumph when he successfully destroyed your lunch today, it's not hard to figure out, mon cher. And you trying to change the subject has been noted."

Arthur flushed faintly, which did not go unnoticed by Francis, whose smirk grew into a predatory grin, not unlike that of a very happy and content cat getting exactly what it wanted.

"There is nothing wrong with my food! And fine, if you must know I am going out tonight so I won't need to poison myself with your crappy French food."

"Mon cher, if you are to be poisoned by anyone's food, it is your own, hence its demise at the hands of Gilbert this morning. Now, are you going to tell me who this person is?" he purred, empty cupboards seemingly forgotten.

"It's just someone I met at the club on Friday, no one special or important so leave your nose out of it."

"Now you know I can't do that Arthur." Francis grinned, placing the tin of carrots down and moving to sit opposite Arthur. "I'm happy that you're starting to make 'ahem' new acquaintances~"

"Shut it, bastard."

"No really, I am" He reached to hold Arthur's hand, who snatched it back with a look of warning to Francis. "You'll have to let me know all about it when you get back, if you get back tonight that is."

"As if I'd tell you anything." Arthur looked at him with distain. "And anyway, like I said, it's unimportant."

Francis shrugged and sat back, but his grin remained. "Whatever you say, mon amis."

Alfred was currently sat outside a block of small and shabby looking apartments, staring at them warily. This was where Arthur told him he lived...

He pulled out his phone and quickly checked the address again. Yup, right one alright. He glanced up at the apartments, debating on whether or not to ring Arthur or just knock for him. His problem was answered however, when he spotted him emerge from the door to the block and make his way to stand by a street lamp. Alfred wound down a window and called out to him.

"Hey! Artie!"

He started and looked up to see Alfred frantically waving from a very expensive looking car window, seemingly oblivious to the amount of noise he was making. Quickly, Arthur made his way to the car and climbed into the passenger door Alfred had scrambled to open for him. He rubbed his hands together to release some warmth back into them and reached behind him to pull on his seatbelt.

"Cold isn't it?"

Arthur nodded in agreement. "It certainly is."

Alfred started the car, checked his mirrors and pulled away onto the road. "You live pretty far out of town you know." He grinned to his passenger. "I know these streets like the back of my hand and I still had to work out how to get here." He laughed, and Arthur found himself smiling too.

"I must admit, I didn't have a clue on how to get here either when I first moved here, I went exploring on the first day and had quite a job working out how to get back again."

Alfred chuckled. "How long ago did you move here?"

"Only 4 months ago, not long enough to know my way around everywhere."

"Nah, it takes a life time of growing up around here to know that." Alfred smiled to himself, which to Arthur looked kind of smug. The conversation, as short as it was alive, died rather spectacularly, leaving the passengers of the car smothered in an uncomfortable silence.

After a few minutes of watching streaks of street lamp lights whiz past his window, Arthur decided to break it. "So Alfred..."

Alfred started, unused to noise in the silent car. It had only been a short while, why did this ride feel so long?

"How old are you? I don't know anything about you after all."

"I'm 19" he replied, puffing out his chest proudly.

Arthur's eyes widened in surprise. "Really? But you were in that club, drinking, and you have this car..."

Alfred laughed again. "Nothing a little fake ID can't fix, and knowing the owner helps too. Plus, one of my friends knew someone as the door. As for the car, I work in my dad's company which pays for it; the car itself was a birthday gift from my parents for turning 18."

Arthur stared incredulously at Alfred. He didn't seem the type to be one of those rich little daddy's boys, living off what his parents had worked for. _Can't judge a book by its cover_ he reminded himself sadly. For his 18th, Arthur received some money from family, a pint of beer in the pub with his dad and his brothers, and some clothes, nothing special and certainly nothing this extravagant. Just how rich was this boy and his family?

"So what about you?" Arthur was returned from his musings by the sound of Alfred's loud voice. "How old are you?"

"I'm 23."

"Really? Huh."

Arthur frowned. "Why, how old did you think I was?"

Alfred shrugged and signalled to turn left down into a smaller road. "Dunno, you just seem older, late 20s or something."

Arthur bristled in annoyance; he most certainly did not look old! He was about to respond, but was distracted by the car pulling to a stop and Alfred's whoop of glee. "We're here!"

He scrambled hurriedly out of the car and slammed the door behind him, leaving Arthur to stare blankly at the spot he just vacated. He sighed and climbed out of his door to stare at the place he had been taken to.

"A diner?" To be honest, Arthur was disappointed. Very much so. He didn't know what do expect really, nothing fancy, defiantly not, but this diner looked really...cheap. Tacky. Somewhere you'd go if you had no money or were really down on your luck, and judging by Alfred's car, he was none of these things.

"Yup." Alfred had shoved his hands into his pockets and swayed slightly from side to side happily. "I know it doesn't look like much, but they make the best burgers I've ever tasted." He grinned and looked over at Arthur. His grin fell away to be replaced with something close to sadness.

"You don't like it?"

"Eh? Err no, it looks very lovely. I'm sorry, my mind was far off."

Alfred frowned slightly and hummed a response, sounding satisfied with Arthur's answer if not content with it. "Well, shall we head inside?"

Arthur nodded and fell in step next to Alfred. They walked in the door and both subconsciously chose a booth close to the door. Alfred sighed; this did not seem like a good start.

Their waitress was young and was quick to respond to them as they sat, but seemed bored with her job and basically life in general. It showed, she sighed her way through taking their orders and then trudged behind a door to the kitchen to relay their order to the chef. Arthur took Alfred's recommendation and ordered some of the special, homemade soap of the day, while Alfred ordered a burger and homemade fries.

After the girl had left, Alfred settled back into his side of the booth and looked Arthur dead in the eye, seemingly boring into him with his look of interest. Arthur felt like an animal being viewed at a zoo and blushed slightly under his attention.

"Are you gay?"

Arthur spluttered and turned a deep red. Taking a deep breath and shaking his head, he managed to reply. "No, but I've just never really cared much, the person matters more."

"Cool! Me too, I've never really had a preference." Noticing the colour of Arthur's face, he added, "Are you embarrassed to talk about it?"

"No." Arthur cursed, damn his cheeks for being so pale, he blushed far more than was normal. "It's just, kind of a personal question to ask someone you've just met, isn't it?"

Alfred shrugged. "I don't think so. We going out tonight to get to know each, other right? Well, that's what I'm doing."

Arthur frowned. "It's a bit of a blunt way of doing it."

"Hey, it works. Now you ask me something."

Arthur cleared his throat. "Okay, what made you come up to talk to me?"

"Huh?" Arthur sighed internally. What an intelligent response.

"Out of all those people at the club, what made you talk to me?" He added. It was something he was honestly curious about, there certainly wasn't anything special about him and he was as flattened against the wall as he could have possibly have made himself.

Alfred was having an internally war between his conscience and his lying ability. His conscience was winning; he wasn't a very good liar. He spied the girl arriving back with their drinks and announced her arrival to give him more thinking time. (It came out as more of a manly squeak than anything else. Curses.) Arthur took his drink with thanks (tea, Alfred noted with an incredulous look, Arthur fit so snugly into the British stereotype it actually was painful,) and took a sip before looking at him expectedly. Alfred took a large swig of his coffee before continuing.

"Yeah, anyway. What made me notice you? Hmm." He pretended to remember; in fact his brain was restarting his excuse making skills section of his brain he'd trained in high school. It had come in handy in more occasions than Alfred could count.

"I dunno really." _Add in some honestly, keep it real._ "You just caught my eye, you weren't exactly dressed for clubbing, you know?" He smiled over his mug at Arthur, who was looking intently into his own. "Plus, you look really nice."

Arthur gave a small, soft smile and took a sip of tea. It was so small, Alfred didn't know for a bit if he'd imagined it or not_. Arthur's face sure looks a whole lot better when he smiles though, it's really kinda cute... _He gave his head a small shake to rid those thoughts from his head and tried to tune in and focus on Arthur's next question.

"Well, thank you Alfred, you looked rather nice yourself then too." _Internal fist pump, yeah! _He was better at this than he thought he was. "So what do you do in your dad's company?"

"Oh! Well, I work in helping manage it, you know, sort out what we're going to do with certain stock, whom we're going to give stocks and loans to, employee management, who goes where and does what, that kinda stuff."

Arthur looked at him with interest; And Alfred found that he had a strange feeling of proudness settle in his belly that he'd caught the other's interest. "We're in the car business, buying, selling, trading and fixing new and old cars."

Arthur nodded in approval and looked up in surprise to see that their waitress had returned with their food. Plates of steaming hot food were placed in front of them and Alfred dug right in with Arthur looking on in slight disgust at the way he tackled/ attacked his meal.

"How'd you get so far up in the company? You must have worked really hard to get so far up so quickly."

Alfred shook his head happily and took another bite of burger as well as stuffing a few more fries in too. To Arthur's relief, he swallowed before he continued, but left about half of what he'd just eaten on his face. Okay, Arthur was exaggerating, but there was a lot. "Nah, dad gave me the job as soon as I left school, got my friend in too." Completely unaware the affect these words were having on Arthur, Alfred carried on eating blissfully ploughing his way through his meal.

Arthur meanwhile, was a little bit cross. All the hard work he'd gone through, all the struggles of scraping together a living, even now, just so that he could get to the position he'd always dreamt of, while still not being there yet, and sitting in front of him was a boy, not man, who was quite happy to admit that he had only got a good job because he father run the place. No shame in admitting that he hadn't worked for anything in his life to get to where he was now, but _pride. _Sure Arthur didn't know Alfred well enough to judge, he may have worked hard, he may have done a lot to deserve the position he was happily sitting it, but he certainly wasn't making it seem that way.

"Did you go to university or collage?"

"Nah, I went in as an intern for the company straight after school, then when I hit 18 dad got me in permanently." Alfred took another swig of coffee, noticing Arthur's look of disappointment and leant forward onto the table.

"What about you? What do you do?"

Arthur puffed up slightly, feeling proud. He was proud; all he'd done to get where he was today took a lot of work, effort and just good luck at times.

"I work for a history magazine writing articles on newly discovered or old artefacts."

Alfred deflated. "Oh."

"Oh?"

"Sounds...I dunno, kinda boring, don't ya think? I thought you'd have a cooler job, considering what you're wearing. Like a band or something! Hey, can you sing?"

"Boring!" Arthur fumed, ignoring the other parts to Alfred's question entirely. "I'll have you know that my work isn't 'boring' at all! It's what I've always wanted to do."

Alfred shrugged again uninterestedly. "If you say so."

"I do say so! It's also the reason I'm here in the first place."

"Why you're out here in the US?"

Arthur nodded. "I moved here because I was temporarily transferred to gain experience working in the American branch of my company after graduating from uni."

"So you're not here permanently then?"

Arthur raised an eyebrow. He just said...he forced himself to be polite and not point out Alfred's mistake, but was he even listening to him? "No, I wouldn't want to stay away from home for too long anyway."

Alfred was internally having a happy dance. This was great, he wasn't going to be here forever, and he'd go back to England eventually. This made what Alfred was doing a whole lot easier, he'd end it after seven months and never have to see the guy again. Perfect. This choice was turning out to be better that he'd expected; he didn't look that bad either. Shame his attitude wasn't something Alfred would normally go for, not to mention those eyebrows...

"Alfred, please stop staring at my forehead."

Alfred blinked, he hadn't even realised he'd been staring.

"Soz dude. But seriously, they look like caterpillars or something, don't you wax them?"

Arthur opened and shut his mouth like a fish out of water. He couldn't _believe _he'd actually just said that! Not known to many, but Arthur was actually extremely sensitive about his eyebrows. Of course he knew they looked ridiculous, and he'd tried everything to get rid of them, but they just grew back again! He didn't need people to go around and point them out to him!

"Hey dude, didn't mean to cause offence or nothin', but-"

"Anything."

"Huh?"

"If you're going to insult me, at least do it with the proper grammar."

"Geeze, who shoved the stick up your ass, I'm just _sayin'"_

"Well don't say!" Arthur's voiced had risen slightly, and his face was starting to turn red out of anger.

"You've been sitting there smug and uninterested nearly the whole time out tonight, you bring me to this crappy diner, who's tea is actually shit by the way, then just insult me and my job? What's wrong with you?"

Alfred frowned and held up his arms. "Hey hey hey, don't go insulting the diner, this place is _the_ shit. Tea's a crappy drink anyway, you should be grateful they even make it."

"Why you-"

"Also, me rude? What about you, sitting there judging me with everything I say!"

"I have not!"

"You have! All evening, my car, my job, the way I speak and text, the place I took you to! Geez, I'm supposed to be the offensive one?"

"That's it." Arthur pushed his remaining food away, pulled out money to pay for his share and stood up. "I'm leaving."

Alfred just started at him, a blank expression on his face. "But it's dark and I've got the car."

"Well, I'll just have to walk then won't I?" Arthur hissed.

Alfred gave a short bark of laughter. "With a stick that big up your ass? Have fun."

Arthur just scowled at him before storming out. Alfred fumed and clenched his fist. That fucking stuck up bastard! How the hell was he supposed to stick with a person like that for seven months of his life! What a fucking waste! He downed the last of his coffee and watched Arthur storm off out of the window in the direction of his home but felt a slight twinge of worry for making him walk home alone so late at night, especially to a neighbourhood such as his. However, he just shook it off with a shake of his head.

"Bastard deserves the walk."

Upon arriving home, Alfred promptly threw his coat and car keys onto a chair, flicked on the light switch and dialled up Jake's number. He was greeted with an irritable grunt of acknowledgement.

"_What the fuck do you want Alfred, I'm busy."_

"Busy? It's eight, what could you possibly be busy with?"

Jake hissed down the other end of the line and Alfred heard rustling and a door slam as he got up and moved to another room. "_I was _busy _Alfred."_

"Ohh..." Realisation dawned on Alfred. "Sorry dude."

He heard a frustrated huff. "_Forget it, what do you want."_

"I can't date him."

"_Who? The man from the club?"_

"Duh!" Alfred ran his hand through his blond hair and started pacing. "He's one of the most irritating, rude and stuck up people I've ever met. Spending seven months with him is a huge waste."

Alfred could see his friend grin on the other end of the phone, he imagined him sitting there draped in his expensive clothes sitting on the new couch he was so proud of wearing a giant ass smug grin. "_That's the point, isn't it Alfred."_

"Yeah, but out of all the people there..."

"_Honestly I chose him because he looked boring. But to hear this, it's obviously gone better than I planned." _He laughed. "_Look Alfred, you don't have to date him, you can give up the dare now, no one's forcing you to do this."_

"I don't wanna give it up!" Alfred sat down on his own couch irritated, and put his feet on the coffee table. "Just, can't I change the person?" He was almost pleading.

"_No. Part of the dare was being able to stay with anyone and be a good boyfriend for seven moments, and that's the person I've chosen for you."_

"But we have almost nothing in common! I even let him walk home alone while I took the car, he's probably not gonna even answer my texts now, let alone see me again."

"_Well, that's just something you're gonna have to work on, isn't it?"_

Alfred groaned. "I hate you."

"_Love you too babe."_

After about a half hour walk of storming home angrily in the dark, Arthur had finally arrived home to be greeted by an excitable and curious Francis. Yay.

"Well?" he questioned, following Arthur into the living room. "How'd it go?"

Arthur snorted, showing his distain and walked into the direction of his bedroom, throwing his phone on the sofa and narrowly missing the cat. Their relationship of tolerance was going away fast. "The man's a spoilt, annoying bastard who has a habit of insulting people for no bloody reason!"

Francis sighed and shook his head as Arthur reached his room and slammed the door behind him. "I'm assuming then, judging by your mood that he mentioned something about your eyebrows?"

A muffled, 'Fuck off bastard!' was heard through the door and Francis chuckled softly to himself. Ah well. Just that moment though, Arthur's phone beeped a message. Curious, Francis looked over to see the caller ID as Grammar-less idiot. Francis laughed at Arthur's positive mindset and picked it up. Surely, if Arthur had no intention of seeing him again (which at the moment looked extremely likely), there was no harm in Francis looking. He clicked open the message and began to read on with interest.

_Hey Arthur, im sorry about tonite, i guess i went a little 2 far huh?  
>I didn't mean all that stuff, ur job does sounds quite interesting, i actually<br>really like history! It's just when i normally tell people i like history, they  
>kinda go of me ;P so yeah, soz about being 2 annoying and insulting u and<br>stuff, but id really like 2 meet again soon :D x_

_P.s, I actually thought ur eyebrows r kinda cute~_

19th Oct. 2010 20:37

From: Grammar-less idiot

Francis hadn't actually laughed this loud in long time, it actually made Arthur emerge from his room just to see what the fuss was all about.

"What the fuck's so funny frog?" He asked, scowling as his eyes locked onto his friend who was currently bent double with laughter.

Francis wiped tears of laughter from his eyes and straightened up, waving Arthur's phone at him. "I'm sorry Arthur; I just read it this once to see..." He broke off into little snickers and Arthur angrily snatched the phone from him.

"I can't believe you read my messages, you privacy invading pillock!"

As Arthur's eyes scanned the text, Francis noted that his face had changed into a wonderful tomato colour.

"I can't believe that bastard! Why does he still want to meet again after all that? Does he honestly expect me to want to see him again?" He fumed, stuffing the phone into his trouser pocket. "Fat change he's going to get."

"You mean, you're not going to see him again? Or even answer?"

Arthur stared at Francis with something akin to shock. "Are you serious? Of course I'm not!"

Francis sighed and shook his head. Arthur glared at him. "And what are you sighing about?"

"It's just..." Francis waved his hand vaguely while trying to think of what to say next that wouldn't cause an immediate end to his life. "You're a little quick to judge sometimes mon cher. I'm sure you must have said something too."

Arthur turned his head away.

"Plus." Francis continued. "It'd be good, like I said earlier, to have some new friends and meet new people. You're not here forever; why not make the most of it. He also gave you a kiss at the end."

"I suppose I wasn't the most agreeable person to talk to either." Arthur murmured, more to himself than to his companion, ignoring the letter part of Francis' sentence.

"Well there you go." Francis clapped his hands together and let his hair down. "Now I'm off for a shower, but you can join me if you'd like mon petit~"

Arthur looked up to glare at the Frenchman, who just grinned and walked out of the room towards their bathroom. He sighed and took out his phone to re-read Alfred's text. This boy was going to be a pain, he could just tell. Feeling slightly guilty for the way he had acted in the diner, he tapped out a quick response.

To: Grammar-less idiot

_I guess I must also apologise for the way I acted, I never even  
>thanked you for taking me there. I must admit, the diner was quite<br>nice _(lie) _and the food was actually quite good. I am sorry for the way I acted  
>towards you; I am a little too quick to judge sometimes and went<br>too much on my opinions on you rather than my observations._

Arthur's thumbs did a little dance over the keypad as he thought about what to write next. Sighing, he finally added in another sentence and clicked send.

_I would be pleased to meet up with you again. Let me know when. x_

The man was going to be a pain.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<br>Wow, finished O.o This one did take ages to write XD It was actually thundering in the middle of me writing this O.o Why weather, why. You were sunny this morning**.

**(1) My uncle works in America and does have tea packets sent over to him. Rather weird I know, but hey ho. Tea O.O**

**(2) Bloke: This means guy. Man. Male person. A dude. Only explaining this, as I've seen it SO many times used as an insult in fan fics. Irritating, though rather amusing at the same time :P**

**I decided to have Alfred take Arthur to a diner instead of Mac Donald's, it's too over used I think in fics and I wanted to make it a bit different, yet still somewhere Arthur wouldn't fancy much.**

**Now, I think the drinking age in America is 21, but I don't know how this applies to clubs so I've gone with the good old, use fake ID and know the manager to get Alfred in drinking. Hopefully it doesn't seem too out of place.**

**I was originally meaning to write it in both of the characters point of view, but it seems to have veered more to Arthur's :S Hope this doesn't make it seem one sided or anything, Alfred seems a little more mean than Arthur does at this point, which is intentional, but to a point. Damn you OOCness, why do you plague me? D:**

**Also, I tried, when writing for Arthur, to use British words like sofa, flat, etc, while writing as Alfred I used couch, apartment...you get the idea.**

**Thanks to anyone who reviewed, faved or follows this story, I'm glad I'm managing to produce something readable :D Please review and let me know what you though, how to fix it, how it was good, bad, any ideas you have, words or phrases that you don't get...etc : 3**

**Thanks again for reading! **

**Heroes~  
><strong>

Edited: not much to change, thank god


	5. Second meeting

**Second meeting**

Alfred stared at his phone with a look of bewilderment. He...he accepted his request to go out again? Just like that? No catch or condition or anything, and an apology as well? With a kiss, no less. To Alfred, Arthur didn't seem like the sort of person to apologise willingly or easily. He shook his head at the desperation of some people. Maybe he was just that loney? Oh God, he's gonna turn out to be a creeper. With a grimace, Alfred called up Jake to tell him the good (kinda) news. Guess it was time to crank up his charm; he had to make a grouchy Brit fall head over heels with him soon before he lost him and the dare.

Between them, a date was set for the 23rd, Saturday night at 7 again. They were to meet at a small restaurant near both of their houses (Alfred ruefully noting that Arthur seemed keen to stay within a reasonable walking distance from his home) and to then see how it went. Alfred was beginning to bitterly hate the number seven, it seemed never to leave him at this point, he saw it more easily in his telephone numbers, house numbers he visited, the office floor he worked on, (right at the top, fuck yeah!) and even his car registration plate had a seven in it. Not that any of this was connected at all, but it had begun to irk Alfred that he could never seem to get away from being reminded what he was doing. Alfred had also found, to his displeasure, that this seemed different to other dates he had been on, he was a lot more nervous now about him impressing his partner, what would be the best way to act and speak to get Arthur to like him and agree to keep on seeing him. Normally, Alfred acted like Alfred and if they didn't like it, well, that was their problem, wasn't it? Well, saying that he only showed them rich and powerful job Alfred, not the nerdy, comic book mad one, but still! Now however, he wanted to make the right impression and make Arthur like him. Thinking about Arthur as said partner though made him shudder involuntarily. They guy was just so...irritating, his personality clashed with Alfred's on every level. Oh, the price to pay for pride.

Upon hearing the news of managing to acquire a second date, Jake had clapped Alfred on the back in congratulations on the next day back at work and asked Alfred for the full details of the night, before laughingly retelling Neil and Tony the details of Alfred's disastrous date. It seemed a whole lot worse when it was repeated by someone else, did he really seem that obnoxious? Feeling a little sheepish about his behaviour, and for once actually admitting that he was slightly in the wrong, he had vowed to try to be nicer to Arthur, not because of the bet, but because Arthur may have only acted like that in retaliation to Alfred's own behaviour. His friends however, viewed Alfred's actions as hilarious and now saw Arthur as some stuck up, rich, posh, and annoying British man who wanted nothing more in life than to correct other peoples' grammar and drink tea, which Alfred actually thought was a bit too harsh. Despite his friends' support, Alfred was still quite nervous about meeting Arthur again. _'Saturday is going to be like, the deciding point or something',_ Alfred had confessed to Jake over their office lunch break, hungrily eating his second burger of the day. Jake had only grimaced at the crumbs and grease falling onto his desk and had agreed. '_You'd better not screw up then, huh?'_

As Alfred walked up to the small restaurant, he spied through a window Arthur sitting inside already, waiting for him. He rubbed his hands together to put some warmth back into them before stuffing them into his pockets and sighing, watching as his breath turned into a white fog in front of his face before dissipating into the night air. '_Nope_' he thought to himself, Jake's words floating around in his head '_Better not screw this one up.'_

Arthur was once again dressed in a sort of casual punkish attire. He had made himself at home at the table, Alfred noted, his thick winter coat slung on the chair behind him and a cup of half drunken tea on the table next to his thin folded hands. The restaurant they had chosen was a grade up from the diner, the decorations were all the same modern theme and the chairs were wooden but comfortable, adding a homely feel to the place. It wasn't a large place by any means, but had a nice cosy feel that helped you relax and allow you to feel that you were almost eating meal at home rather than at a restaurant. Smiling at him, Alfred plopped down on the chair opposite and leant forward apologetically.

"Hi, have you been waiting here long?"

Arthur returned the smile, barely and quickly. "Hello. And no, I got here a little too fast, I didn't realise just how close it was. I only arrived about 5 minutes ago." He drained the last of the tea in his mug as Alfred looked at him. His nose and cheeks were still slightly red from the cold outside and his hair was a lot more ruffled than when last he saw him, sticking out randomly all over the place. Alfred assumed he must look somewhat the same, having power walked the way here when he realised how close he was cutting the time. He too took off his coat and hung it on the back of his chair before stretching his legs out and straightening the collar of his old jumper he was wearing.

"You look flustered." He added, raising a large eyebrow. (Alfred couldn't help but watch its movements in fascination)

"Ha-ha, yeah, I didn't really give myself enough time to get here." He played with the hairs on the back of his neck. "Do you know what food's good here?"

Arthur picked up his menu and handed on to Alfred, who thanked him before opening it. "No, I've never come here before; heard of it though."

Alfred hummed his agreement. "Same, looks like it's all happy guessing then, huh?"

Arthur looked up. "I suppose so."

Alfred quickly scanned the list before settling on a plain old steak with all of the works, extra fries to boot. "What're you having?"

Arthur shrugged and frowned slightly, eyes quickly scanning the page before him. _Jesus, this place is more expensive than I thought. _"I think I'll have the hunter's chicken." _It's not the best, but it's certainly something I can at least afford to get. _Though Arthur had a nice paying job back home and his own house on a reasonable morgage, here he was just an exchange intern and therefore earnt very little in comparison to normal. Even with Francis' income, they had to stretch their budgets to pay for their shared flat.

Alfred raised his eyebrows, but chose to say nothing. _Hey, if he wants to eat the boring ass chicken, let him eat the boring ass chicken._ "So, how did your week go?"

Arthur sighed. "The same as usual really, work and putting up with Francis all day every day. Now of course, he's like the cat that's got the bloody cream and won't bloody shut up about me and my love life and-"

"Francis?" Alfred cut in.

Arthur's eyes widened slightly in realisation and he coughed. "Ah yes, sorry. Francis, he's my flatmate and unfortunate childhood companion."

"Ah."

"So, what about you?" Arthur broke the silence to stop the impending awkward silence that would undoubtedly settle on them if one of them didn't speak up. "How was your week?"

"Ah! Well you see, normally we just kinda oversee what the under employees are doing in the company, but I managed to convince my dad to let me take a look at some new antique cars that are coming in from a German branch and give them a look over and stuff to see their condition." His eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement. "And, Mattie, he's my bro by the way, said he'll come down to visit next week too! So this week's defiantly better because of that! Other than that, the normal work stuff."

As he finished speaking, a waitress came over to take their orders. They briefly glanced through the menu again to order drinks to go with their food before giving her their choices. She smiled at them and happily thanked them for their orders before wandering off in the direction of the kitchen.

"So, what does your brother do?" Arthur wanted to try to get the conversation going again; he hated the stifling silences that dates always seemed to bring. Maybe this was why he was still single, he mused. He wasn't really a social person, not that he couldn't socialise or hated meeting people mind you, but he preferred the quiet calmness staying in gave him.

Alfred perked up at the mention of his brother. "Mattie's a year younger and he's at medical school, he wants to be a doctor. He's real good at it too."

"Why didn't he go into the family business like you?" Arthur wondered, avoiding correcting Alfred's grammar. _Oh, but he wanted to._

However, Alfred's face fell slightly. "He was allowed to follow what he wanted to do in his life."

Arthur, sensing that he'd just entered a bad area of conversation, swiftly diverted it away from the previous topic.

"Do you have any more brothers?"

"Nah, it's just me and Matt."

"You're lucky to only have one sibling. I have five."

"Five!" Alfred stared incredulously at Arthur, who had flushed slightly. _He's cute when he blushes~_ Quickly stamping on that particular thought train; Alfred turned his attentions back to Arthur, who now looked as though he wished he'd never said anything at all.

"Yes, two older, a twin and two younger. I hate the lot of them though, awful nightmares they are."

"Wow, well done to your mum, then. But that's not cool dude, I really get along with Mattie, he's the most awesomest brother ever!"

_Self-control, Arthur, it's just grammar. _"Well, you're lucky your brother's not like any of mine then."

The subject of their last date was completely avoided; not brought up once as both felt that all that needed to be said had been, and the rest of their time at the restaurant was, to Arthur's regret in admitting, very pleasant. Alfred wasn't actually as obnoxious as he was before, and while he was loud and irritating, he was blissfully unaware of it and had no ill intentions at heart. He wasn't as boastful or uninterested as last time either, he seemed to listen to what Arthur had to say and the more surprising thing was that he seemed interested to hear it. Maybe Francis was right, he needed to get out more.

Alfred also had actually found that he enjoyed himself talking to Arthur. Both had managed to get caught up in a debate on history, Alfred claiming that America's was more awesome while Arthur opted for Britain's, but it was more of a friendly banter than anything serious. Arthur also knew quite a lot of good music and had been to see many, something which Alfred would never have assumed from the way he acted, and got talking about certain bands and genres. Their food was eaten but not really paid attention to, (a first for Alfred). To them both it was strange how easily they were able to slip into conversation, like they had known each other all of their lives not to be nervous anymore.

The only problem that they had came when Alfred offered to pay for both of them at the end of the meal. Arthur angrily burst out that he was not a charity case and could pay for himself. Alfred only laughed it off and held up his hands in mock surrender and said jokingly, "I thought it was polite to pay for the lady."

Arthur blushed furiously and demanded why he was the lady out of the two of them, to which Alfred just laughed and dragged them up to the counter to pay.

Outside, Alfred found that he didn't want to part just yet and offered going to the cinema as their next activity. Arthur looked down at the pavement and shifted uncomfortably. "I haven't got enough money on me Alfred." He really didn't what to admit that, but saw no other alternative; he was now sure that Alfred would keep on at him until he went.

"Uh, that's okay dude, I'll pay!" He chirped in response.

Arthur coloured. "Alfred, I've already said that-"

"Yeah yeah, I know." Alfred put in. "I'm offering as a friend, kay? You can buy the popcorn if you've got enough."

Arthur nodded grudgingly. "Fine, just this once you're paying for me though. I don't want to make a habit of this."

Alfred laughed. "Wouldn't dream of it dude."

They started to walk in the direction of the nearest cinema at a slower than average pace, taking their time and talking. Arthur was ahead of him for a little bit as they crossed a road, and Alfred couldn't help but notice how slender he seemed; he seemed to walk with almost a regal grace, looking ahead instead of down but not enough to look snobbish. Alfred's strides were longer though, those few inches making a difference, and he was able to catch Arthur quickly and resume to walking side by side.

When they arrived at the cinema, Alfred had promptly run off, dragging a more reluctant Arthur behind him, to the food counter to get their popcorn before buying their tickets. It was also Alfred who chose the picture, a new action movie just out, as Arthur rather stupidly said that he didn't mind what they saw. They were seated at the back row, Alfred had quickly taken the popcorn hostage leaving Arthur with the drinks and excitedly chatted away about how 'awesome' the film was supposed to be, before hurriedly shushing Arthur (who was then about to retort that he was not the one who had been speaking) and hissing that the film was starting, fixing his eyes onto the screen.

The film, in Arthur's opinion, was boring. As soon as it started, he could tell what was going to happen, everything was so predictable and cliché he wondered how it had managed to get the reviews that it did. Alfred however, was on the edge of his seat almost throughout, which Arthur would have found quite endearing if not for the sound effects he added anytime something happened before hurriedly whispering, 'Did you see that!' to Arthur before turning away again.

After it had ended and the lights had come on, Alfred had turned to him in wonder to tell him it was the best damn thing he'd ever seen and to ask him for his opinion.

"Well, it was rather boring really." Arthur admitted as they walked out. "I mean, it was really predictably, lacked originality, the lead girl couldn't act at all, and there was an unexplained British sounding villain popping up to kill people. Again."

Catching the look of utmost horror on Alfred's face, he quickly added, "But the explosions and special effects were good though."

Alfred whooped "I know, right? They were the best bit!"

Alfred now satisfied and the crisis averted, the two found themselves outside again. It was colder now, the wind biting their faces as it swirled around then in little gusts that almost took their breath away.

"Winter's coming early, huh?" Alfred offered as a conversation, watching a fox slink away into the shrubbery on the other side of the road.

Arthur nodded and pulled his coat around tighter. "It is, but I wouldn't know what it's like every year to compare."

"Oh yeah, you weren't here last year were you?" He fiddled with the ends of his jumper underneath his coat, the edges were fraying slightly but it was one of his favourites, too good to throw away. "Wanna walk the long way back?"

Arthur looked at him and gave a small smile and nodded before starting to move off. Alfred's heart did a funny summersault at the sight of it, it was so small but seemed to change his entire face, he looked so much younger and carefree that Alfred found himself wanting to see it again. He started walking too, and quickly caught up with him. He poked him in the side as he neared him and grinned. The two soon matched their paces and settled into a comfortable silence.

They had been walking for a little while before any of them spoke again.

"Can I ask you a question Alfred?"

Alfred looked up quickly, accustomed to the silence that had fallen between them. "Sure, shoot Artie."

Arthur frowned. "It's Arthur." He was silent for a little while, and Alfred was almost about to ask him what he wanted when he spoke again. "I just wanted to know, if you wouldn't mind telling me, why you're so different tonight from the other night we went out."

Alfred tried to think of a lie that would sound convincing and not make himself look like an idiot, but found himself answering with a truthful answer before his brain could keep up and formulate something else. "I wanted to make you like me." _Damn it, that was probably the cheesiest thing I've ever said._

Arthur frowned slightly and looked away again while Alfred was internally beating himself up for his corniness.

"How am I supposed to know which one is you then?"

"Huh?" _Smooth Alfred, smooth._

Arthur sighed in frustration and stopped walking to turn to face him. "What one's the real you, the way you actually act. Tonight's one, or the one from the last date."

Alfred looked sheepish then and stared at his toes. "Tonight's one." _Well, most of it anyway._

Looking at Arthur's questioning face he elaborated. "Well, normally when I go out on dates they like that, ya know? The nice car and the nice job and to kinda be in control and cool, but you didn't seem interested, more like you were annoyed by it. So I didn't really know what to do and got kinda frustrated." '_Not to mention you being judgemental about everything I said didn't help much.' _He muttered as an afterthought under his breath, which luckily Arthur didn't seem to hear.

"Why didn't you just act like this the first time when you saw I was getting annoyed?"

"Cos!" He flushed and turned away from Arthur, burying his nose into the material lining of his coat. "People think it's nerdy liking history, and comics, and antique cars. The people I normally go out with like the other stuff."

Arthur sighed and shook his head. "You silly thing, how do you expect people to get to know you when you're doing that?"

"Well, they never normally want to get to know me that much after that anyway, nor I them really, I normally have...ya know, one night things or non commitment ones." The last part was said quieter than the rest so Arthur had to strain to hear what Alfred had said. "Why do you want to know anyway?"

"Well, when I meet you again I want to know which one I'm actually spending my time with." Arthur replied with a small huff.

"What? You wanna meet up again?"

Arthur looked confused. "Yes...why, don't you want to?"

Alfred saw for a quick moment a look of hurt and rejection flit across Arthur's face before it was replaced with a cold indifference and was quick to reassure him. "Wait, I never said that! Of course I want to!"

"You do?"

"Yeah. Alfred walked to stand next to Arthur again and slung an arm around his shoulder. "You're not too bad to be with, ya know Artie." He laughed.

Arthur's lip twitched. "Of course not. You're not too bad yourself, yank."

The rest of their walk back was the same as on the way to the cinema, they talked about quite a lot of things, ranging from schools to friends and basic stuff: what their favourite hobbies were, what their favourite colour was (Arthur's reply to Alfred's question had been 'the sea', prompting a cry of indignation from Alfred that he was cheating) and what their favourite sport was. Arthur now knew that Alfred was quite keen on the idea of becoming a hero, which he guessed he'd gained from his slight obsession with comic books, liked history, cars, Mac Donald's, and the colour red. Likewise, Alfred had learnt that Arthur maybe liked tea a bit too much, hated the French for a reason that wasn't yet explained, turned red at the mention of magical creatures, and enjoyed history and reading. A lot of reading. Before they knew it, they were back at the restaurant when they met earlier that evening.

Arthur went to stand under a street lamp in the direction of his house and Alfred followed. "Well then, good night then, I guess, Alfred. I'll see you soon?"

"Yup, I'll text you later, yeah?"

Arthur nodded and let out a gasp of surprise when Alfred suddenly pulled him in for a going away hug. "Walk back safe, old man."

"I'll have you know that I'm not old, thank you very much, I'm only four years older than yourself."

Alfred let him go and laughed at his now scowling face. "But you still admit you're older?"

"Shut it you." He replied with a grumble and started to move off. "I'll see you soon."

"Yup, bye Artie!"

"It's Arthur!"

Alfred laughed as he watched Arthur's slim form grow smaller and smaller as he moved further away, before turning a corner and disappearing completely. The smile slid off his face as his brain mulled over their last few moments together. As he'd pulled Arthur in to that hug, he'd felt this almighty pull, like a magnet, just to lean in and kiss him. The way the light from the lamp and the moon had hit his face and his hair seemed to call out to him, and Alfred's face heated up just remembering the strange rush of feelings he'd had when Arthur was in his arms. He shook himself to clear his head from these thoughts, as that's all they were, random feelings probably brought on from eating too much popcorn and drinking too much coke too fast again. He starting walking to his own house, squashing down any sort of feeling he'd had for Arthur that night and that final weird, new rush at the end which he tried to convince himself meant nothing.

They scared him more than he'd ever like to admit.

Arthur had returned home that night to an empty and cold flat. He sighed, realising that Francis' had probably found someone on one of his outings and was now out enjoying himself. He shook his head and managed to feel some pity for the poor person his flatmate had managed to find that would sleep with him. Turning the heating on and wandering around to shut all of the windows fully, he also realised the flea bag was out, (they say pets resemble their owners), leaving the flat to himself for once.

By now, it was quite late and Arthur started getting ready to turn in for bed. He had a quick shower and checked the messages on his phone, deleting the rude sex joke one from Gilbert and the flirtatious one from Francis and climbed into bed, shivering slightly at the cool sheets. He was about to start nodding off when it let out a loud beep and he started, forgetting that he'd just turned the phone's silent off. Rolling over to retrieve it from the bedside cabinet he clicked it on to reveal a new message from Alfred.

_Thnx 4 the g8 nite, sleep well Artie :) x_

23rd Oct. 2010 23:19

From: Grammar-less idiot

Arthur had a hard time falling asleep after that, his thoughts plagued by a certain American who laughed too loud and like comic books too much.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong>

**Ahh, this one's a lot shorter than the last one D: It's also almost all in Alfred's point of view, I hope that didn't ruin it for anyone ORZ I'll go back to doing both of them next time, as well as hopefully improving the length a bit more.**

**Thanks for all the reviews and favourites people, it's those which keep me writing ^u^ After all, what good's being a writer if no one reads their stories? :)**

**To ****Blackcat:**** You have no account, so I can't answer you any other way, but thank you for the last two reviews XP I'm glad that you like both the story and my writing style, hopefully I can continue to keep you interested :D**

**- Arthur having five brothers: Scotland and Ireland the older ones, Wales the twin, and Sealand and Northern Ireland as the two younger :) I normally see in fics like these Arthur only having three older brothers, normally Ireland, very few have actually included Northern Ireland as well, and he needs some love too ^u^ The reason I've put Wales as Arthur's twin, is that their age in terms of having civilisations and being founded are relatively the same, and both were conquered by Rome and were both considered the same country until Rome had left. Also, in anything political Wales is always lumped with England while Scotland and Northern Ireland are separate. Poor Wales, he's just like the Canadia someone of the UK :(**

**So, I hope you've enjoyed reading this chapter, please let me know what you thought and tell me if there are any improvements I can make :P**

**Thanks again for reading!  
><strong>

**Heroes~**


	6. Fireworks

**Fireworks**

When Arthur awoke the next morning, he found himself draped in a Frenchman, his blanket haphazardly covering them both. He groaned, too used to this for it to be uncomfortable or surprising, and turned to face Francis, smelling the wine from last night on his breath. He wrinkled his nose in disgust and kicked him hard in the shin, startling him awake instantly. His victim's eyes shot open and he winced, before whining and allowed his head to fall back against the pillow.

"Sorry, were you comfortable?" Sarcasm, what a wonderful way to start the morning.

Francis gave him a frosty glare, half hidden by pillow and muttered. "Non, I was not. You curled into a ball, stole most of the covers, and elbowed me at one point when you turned over."

Arthur returned the glare and ignored his answer. "Why the bloody hell are you in my bed, Francis?" Francis grinned and pulled Arthur closer to him, who was only just now remembering to pray that his flatmate was wearing clothes and was currently doing so in earnest.

"Our heater broke again at some point whilst I was out and you were asleep. When I came home it was so cold and draughty in here, so I came to sleep with you to share our heat." He winked as Arthur sat up and stretched, feeling goosebumps break out across his arms and stomach where the skin was exposed as they hit the cool morning air. He got up and looked at the other occupier of the bed, now sprawled in the space he just vacated, and tugged the blankets from over him completely off whilst smiling in satisfaction at the Frenchman's shriek of protest.

"Make the breakfast and I'll go and fix the heater, unless of course you want me to cook?"

He didn't know whether to feel pleased or offended at watching Francis' hurried scramble to get to the kitchen before him.

* * *

><p>The heater was an old boiler type, one that needed a good whack with a spanner now and again to get working. Neither he nor Francis could be bothered to call in someone to fix it properly, they weren't going to stay in this flat for long, and as long as it lasted until they left, it was fine with them.<p>

Grabbing the conveniently located spanner from where he last left it, Arthur aimed a good solid hit right in the middle, and smiled in satisfaction at the splutter of life it gave off before hanging the tool back on the wall. It had happened so often now, that the old metal was sporting a rather impressive dent in the middle of the casing. As he shut the door, he could already smell cooking food wafting from the kitchen and Francis' annoying humming drift along with it. Taking the moment alone, Arthur leant with his back against the wall as he sat down. After thinking on it after a night's sleep, Alfred's actions were even more confusing to him than they seemed to be last night. Both dates were so different from each other, too different probably. Arthur could understand wanting to impress potential dates with flashy cars and nice suits and stuff, but that attitude was horrible. The one last night though...

The last one was lovely. Like meeting a whole different person. Sure, he was still loud, still annoying and still asked rude questions had no manners whatsoever, but he was...pleasant. Arthur cursed as he blushed; he was cross that he seemingly couldn't even tell the truth to himself of all people. No, pleasant. That was all he was. Nothing more, certainly not.

But his personality change nagged at the back of his mind. No one, surely, could change _that_ much, could hide away that much of themselves for a night just to impress a date. One of them was Alfred's real personality; either that or his real personality was a mix of the two. Either way, Arthur had a nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right with Alfred. He just seemed...off. He couldn't really explain it, though he did try, slumped against the wall as he was. It just seemed as though he was trying too hard. No matter whom Alfred seemed to be, he seemed to be hiding something and Arthur was becoming more and more determined to find out what it was.

Of all things Arthur could admit to, Alfred definitely interested him.

* * *

><p>Neither of them thought about it, but before long they found themselves texting each other at least three times a day, with Alfred usually initiating the conversations at random and often inappropriate times. During one of Arthur's rather important meeting for one example. (he couldn't <em>believe<em> that he'd forgot to put his mobile on silent.) His superiors were none too impressed, to say the least.

After almost two weeks since their second date, Alfred was not having a good day. Arthur had turned off his phone and had refused to answer his previous messages after Alfred had continuously texted him throughout the day. He was glad that they were acting like friends now and that they could talk, but they were _just_ friends. Or, so it seemed. Arthur hadn't asked him out yet and Alfred didn't really know how Arthur felt about him, it was like there were walls hiding certain emotions he had from the rest of the world. They had been out to the movies another time but hadn't done anything other than chat. Arthur didn't seem like the type of person to answer honestly about how he was feeling if directly asked (like Alfred himself would) and Alfred had, as of yet, found nothing from him to let him know if he even considered them to be dating each other. What even were they anyway? Friends? Who spoke but never really saw the other? Were they even friends? Alfred, was not, as many knew, a patient person, and Arthur's lack of decisions was frustrating to him, especially since this was a bet. He was supposed to be _dating _Arthur for seven months, not happily texting him. Alfred knew it wouldn't be too long until Jake started asking for proof of their relationship, which as of yet he obviously didn't have. What was more annoying, was that Alfred knew he couldn't keep asking Arthur out, it'd seem too pushy and one sided. Alfred wanted to know that Arthur wanted to see him too and ask him somewhere, but so far this was looking more and more unlikely. Alfred knew he had to up his game, but had no idea how to start.

Currently during his bad day, Alfred had run out of coffee at home, found a mountain of employee records he needed to check, forms giving his consent for new cars to be bought that needed to be signed, and he had awoken that morning to find that Matthew had rearranged his wardrobe while he was sleeping. (_"Alfred there are more pizza boxes in there than actual clothes. It would be a biological hazard for me to leave it like that.")_ Because of this he had rushed in after becoming late trying to find where Mattie had moved his stuff, and it was still only the late morning. After all of this, he felt he deserved a much needed Facebook and Robot Unicorn Attack break before actually doing anything else. Thank God it's Friday. When Tony had walked in without bothering to knock, Alfred was almost bent double, face nearly touching the screen and fingers tapping furiously.

"Hey big guy."

"Shh! Not now, I'm on four dolphins."

"Alfred, come on man, help me out here."

"SHHH! Not now."

Alfred cried out in protest as his laptop screen was suddenly snapped shut, almost catching his fingers in the display.

"Hey!"

"Alfred, I don't care. You're not supposed to be doing that anyway, so really I was doing you a favour. Be grateful."

Alfred just grumbled. Tony rolled his eyes and sat down in the chair opposite the desk, facing him. "Look Alfred, we're friends right?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"And heroes like helping people in need, right?"

"Obviously!"

"Well, how about you be a hero and help a friend in need?"

With that, Alfred nodded and grinned. "Sure, what do you need this awesome hero to help you with?"

Tony got up and walked out of his office, appearing a moment later with some papers in his arms. "I need you to go through these and write a small report on the finances about them for me."

Alfred groaned as the papers were dumped upon his desk next to his own growing pile."What? Why...? This is your work! I can't just do it for you. Besides, I know nothing about finance."

Tony clapped him on the shoulder and gave it quite a firm squeeze. "Come on buddy, no one'll know! And you don't have to do much, just read through and write some bullshit with numbers in. That's all I do. Even you can manage it." With that he smiled, straightened up and proceeded to walk out again. Alfred stood, his swivel chair sliding about a foot away and called out to his retreating back.

"Wait! I ain't doing these! That's your job, what do I get for this?" He followed Tony out into the main office floor.

"I thought the hero helped their friends?" Tony replied coolly over his shoulder. "Unless you're not a very good friend after all, Alfred." He looked at Alfred properly and turned to face him before adding, "And I really need your help. They have to be due in today and I can't get them done in time."

"What about asking someone else?"

"They're all busy!"

"I'm busy too!"

Tony raised an eyebrow and huffed. "Oh really? Playing Robot Unicorn doesn't seem like busy to me."

"I- I was just taking a break!"

Tiny wobbled his bottom lip slightly. "Please Alfred? You're the only one who can help me..."

Alfred sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, since you have to have them in today...I guess I can. You owe me a coffee though tomorrow!"

Tony laughed, dark mood gone and fluffed up his dark brown hair. "Sure pal, I'll play that new zombie game with you tomorrow after work too if you want."

Alfred grinned. "Brilliant! No one else'll play with me! Where are you going that's forcing you to give these to me anyway?"

Tony had started inching towards the elevator doors. He stared in a nearby computer screen on the way before fixing his hair again, puffing it up more. "Got a date."

Alfred's face dropped at the casual way that was said. "You're just dumping this on me...because you have a date?"

"Yup." Tony didn't look up, but focused on making his suit sit straight on his shoulders. "You know Debbie downstairs? Her. Awesome right? Wish me luck dude!"

With that, he quickly walked out again before Alfred could protest further, pressing the button on the inside of the elevator to shut the doors quickly. He grinned as they shut, eyes locking with Alfred's for a while, smirk flickering in them. Alfred let him go, lamenting the fact that he did actually agree to that, as well as cursing himself for allowing Tony to pressure him as he did. He _supposed_ he was helping though...he groaned and walked back into his spacious office, retrieved his chair from where it had slid to and sat on it, spinning from side to side using his toes. With reluctance, he pulled himself to his desk and began tackling the now larger pile.

At 3 o'clock, Alfred was exhausted. Most of it was done, Tony's papers had been written up and evaluated (most of his numbering was honestly guesswork, he really didn't know any of this.) and his own pile was halved. Feeling a job well done, Alfred decided to nip out for a coffee break, seeing as the coffee machine had broken on the upstairs floor and no one on the other floors liked to share. Not that he could blame them.

His favourite coffee shop was down near the nearby park; quite hidden away from the main streets it was never busy, but had a healthy amount of business to keep it going. The cashier chirped thanks as he handed her his money and watched him with a sort of morbid fascination as he downed a third of the cup in one gulp, scalding his tongue. God, he needed that. Now sat in a small but padded armchair in a place that smelt of coffee beans, and a mug of the stuff in his hands, Alfred felt a whole lot better about his day. He took his time with the rest of his mug, (noticing the quick, fascinated glances the girl at the counter threw him every now and again) and watched the world pass by from the window. He was daydreaming quite peacefully when he saw a familiar blond head bob past and go into the park. Eyes widening, Alfred downed the dregs and left, calling a thank you to his waitress behind him as he left.

He walked forward, following the path of the park for a while before he found Arthur sitting on a bench alone, staring off into space. Smiling, he plopped down beside him.

"Hey!"

Arthur started; only just noticing Alfred perched beside him and gave a nod and a small smile in greeting. "Hello, Alfred."

"What're you doin' out here? I thought you were working?"

Arthur huffed. "I could say the same to you." Alfred diverted his eyes.

"I finished early; they had nothing else for me to do so I thought I'd go out for a walk and some shopping." Arthur offered, motioning towards the bags at his feet, previously unnoticed by Alfred, and nudged them slightly with one foot. "You?"

"Coffee break." Alfred winked. "Had to have some fuel to get me through the day, seeing as I have none at home and the one at work's broken."

"I know, you did sound rather desperate in your messages."

Arthur looked like he wanted to say something else, but held back, chewing on his lip instead. Alfred watched in silence for a moment, choosing to let him say whatever when he needed to.

"Wanna go for a walk?" He offered, and watched as Arthur's eyes flicked towards his as he spoke. They were so _green. _

"Sure."

* * *

><p>They walked for awhile, sometimes in silence and sometimes talking about things they'd got up to recently that they hadn't mentioned over their texts. After a while, they neared the park's pond, an impressive thing that was quite large compared to average pond, going as far as to offer boat rides for children in the summer. Having gone a full circle around the outskirts of it for a while, they stopped and stood near the bank watching the ripple less water in a companionable silence.<p>

"Are you supposed to be away from work for this long?" Arthur asked, breaking the silence in one soft spoken sentence, still looking across the water.

Alfred's eyes widened in panic. "Shit! How long have we been walking?"

Arthur shook an arm to look at his watch and quirked an eyebrow in surprise. "Almost an hour."

"Damn it! I have a shit load'a things to do still! Christ... I'm gonna die."

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Don't be so over dramatic, Alfred. I'm sure they won't mind if your work's a little late."

"It's not them! It's Mattie; he'll kill me if I'm home late."

"Isn't he a guest at your house?"

"Dude, you don't know my brother. He can be killer scary when he wants." Alfred hesitated for a bit, before pulling Arthur into a quick hug and starting to leave before the other could react with anything other than a dumbfounded stare.

"Gotta go Artie! Talk later!"

"It's Arthur, arsehole!" Arthur fumed, before calling out again. "Hey Alfred, wait a minute!"

Alfred turned to see Arthur looking slightly uncomfortable and avoiding looking at him, choosing instead to look back over the pond. "Do you want to go out somewhere tonight? I mean, it's fine if you're busy or something, but I-"

"Nah, that's cool Artie!" Alfred beamed and fist pumped inwardly. Finally! He thought this would never happen. He must be better at flirting than he thought. "Do you wanna meet up somewhere?"

"N-no, if you come over to mine whenever you finish and we'll go from there. Ah! But what about your brother?"

Alfred waved his concerns aside. "No worries dude, I'll let him know when I get back to the office."

"I thought you said he'd be mad if you were late home?"

"Well yeah, if I was late because I slacked off. He won't mind this though."

Arthur looked unsure. "If you're sure, you don't have to come, you know! I'm only asking because you happened to be here and you said you'd been working all day. I only asked for your sake!"

Alfred just laughed. "Sure Artie, whatever."

"It's Arthur!"

"Well, I gotta go now, see ya later!" With that he turned and ran off, leaving Arthur alone and red faced at the pond. Damn it, he had a feeling he was going to regret asking that buffoon, he could just tell. Arthur watched Alfred's form grow smaller as he sprinted back towards the entrance of the park. He signed once more at the idiocy of his thinking and picked up his bags, walking off in the direction of home.

* * *

><p>When Alfred arrived outside Arthur's block of apartments, it was already dark. The time on his phone told him it was around 7, but that had been out of time for a while now so he hoped he wasn't too late for whatever Arthur had planned for them tonight. To be honest, he was actually excited, and had a hard time getting back into focus at work when he had finally returned (his secretary was not pleased at his overly long disappearance.) Arthur had asked <em>him<em> out. Meaning Arthur at the very least saw him as a friend. Now Alfred just had to convince him to become more.

Stepping out of the car and jogging up to the door, he rang the worn down button for Arthur's apartment number, stabbing it hard for a long amount of time to make sure it was heard.

"_Hello?" _Arthur's voice rang out metallic like and faded from the old speaker.

Alfred pushed the button again to speak, and leant in close. "Hey Artie! It's me and it's kinda cold out here, could ya let me in?"

Alfred heard Arthur mutter something about his grammar again over the speaker before it cut off, door clicking as it unlocked. Alfred grasped the handle and gave a firm tug, opening the heavy door and stepping into the main stairway and warmth.

Finding Arthur's room was actually kinda hard, Alfred admitted to himself. It didn't seem big from the outside, but this place had at least three floors and quite a few doors leading off down corridors to different rooms. Knowing only the number and many of the doors not actually having numbers on them anymore, Alfred grew impatient rather quickly and was extremely glad when on his third door, it was Arthur who answered.

"Ah, there you are. I was wondering where you went." He was dressed really casually, just jeans and a plain tee-shirt but with hair looking tamer than usual, like he'd tried to make it lay flat, making Alfred feel a little out of place in his work clothes.

"Ha ha, yeah. Just wanted to take a quick look around before I knocked, ya know?"

Arthur gave him a look the clearly showed he didn't believe him but let him in, shutting the door behind him. He took Alfred's coat and told him to make himself at home before disappearing off into a room on the right leaving Alfred alone in the small living room.

And to Alfred, it really was small.

In front of him was a two seater sofa and an armchair with a small TV in front and a bookcase behind it against the wall. A desk was to his right, small and cluttered with an open laptop nestled within the debris and a plain fold-up chair to accompany it. It took up a lot of space along that wall. To his left was a corridor with rooms leading off on each side, two on each and a half wall diagonally left showed a kitchen. On the left wall there was nothing but an easel with a mass of paintings surrounding it, some laying propped against the wall itself with most lain in stacks on top of one another. It was largely undecorated, save for the odd painting hung on the wall or a picture frame of a family member or friend and was very cramped, but had a cosy feeling to it. Alfred couldn't help think though, that it was very impersonal, nothing to show it was owned by a particular person with a certain personality. Nothing of Arthur's or his housemate's which made it their own.

Arthur returned to find him gazing about the place, still standing in the same spot.

"You can sit down, you know."

Alfred laughed and moved over to the two seater, only to find a large fluffy cat sitting in the direct middle.

"Don't mind him." Arthur appeared from behind and sat himself gracefully on the armchair, looking at the cat with distain. "Just push him off."

Alfred did so and sat back, sinking into the cushions. "So, what did you have planned?"

"We'll get to that soon enough." Arthur looked towards the kitchen. "I ordered some plain pizza about five minutes ago, there's about half left if you haven't already eaten."

Alfred had, but was actually still hungry so happily took up Arthur's offer, and helped himself to the box on the kitchen table. "Want me to use a plate or anything?"

"There's a clean one on the side by your right."

Retrieving his pizza (he was starving now, honest to God where did this go in his stomach) he plodded back to join Arthur in the living room.

"No flatmate today?" After hearing quite a few stories about Francis from Arthur, Alfred was looking forward to meeting him, though he would rather spend time with Arthur alone.

"No" Arthur picked at a stitch on his jumper. "He's out somewhere, probably impregnating America's population."

"Ah..." Alfred was starting to get impatient now, pizza could only silence him for so long.

"Sho, weuh're we goin'?" He asked around his last mouthful. Arthur grimaced

"Is it possible for you not to talk with your mouth full? Or even make it last for longer than a few seconds?"

Alfred shook his head and was about to answer but Arthur held up his hand silencing him. "Never mind, don't answer. Anyway, I need to do something tonight and thought you may enjoy it as well."

Arthur gestured to a rucksack sitting besides the TV. "I thought you might want to help me set some fireworks off."

* * *

><p>"Arthur, it's cold."<p>

"I know."

"No, I mean it's _real _cold."

"It's 'really cold'. And yes, congratulations, Alfred."

"Why the hell are we even here again?" Alfred asked, teeth chattering as he hopped from foot to foot and bounced up and down to try to warm himself up. Arthur looked up from where he was planting a firework in the ground and scowled.

"I've already told you why. For Bonfire night."

"Well yeah." Alfred drawled, pulling his coat tighter. "But I don't know what the hell that even is." He had been given a brief overview, but Alfred thought that being dragged up a large hill in the middle of the night on a freezing cold day in winter deserved a bit more explanation.

"In Britain we celebrate every 5th of November because of the discovery and prevention of the gunpowder plot by Guy Fawkes. He wanted to kill the King by blowing him up but failed and was subsequently killed in a terribly gruesome way. Today is the 5th, hence me wanting to set off fireworks. Happy now?"

"So basically you're celebrating some dude being killed in the dinosaur times by firing shit into the sky. Sounds great."

"You didn't have to fucking come you know." Arthur grumbled, violently stuffing the last firework into the ground. "For some strange reason I thought you'd actually enjoy finding out about something I like to do. _Please_ forgive me."

Ah, now Alfred felt bad. (and was happily missing the sarcasm)

"No no! I didn't mean it like that. Aww, come on Artie, don't sulk!" Alfred looped an arm around Arthur's shoulders, causing him to jerk away looking scandalised.

"My name's Arthur, for the last time, don't call me Artie!"

"You know, the more you react like that the longer that'll be your name."

"Fuck off."

Alfred laughed, now knowing Arthur for long enough to know that he didn't really mean that. (Though he did.)

Besides, he wanted to get on Artie's good side, not start arguments with him. Also, Alfred reasoned to himself as Arthur lit the fuses and started to drag him away, if Arthur wanted to show him some boring shit on a hill, he still wanted to spend time with him. That was defiantly something he could work with.

They sat down a distance away and watched in silence as the sparks eventually lit the fuses one by one, Alfred actually being sent into an enthralled silence as the rockets flew into the sky in bursts of colour and noise. He'd always had a soft spot for fireworks. Tearing his gaze away from the sky for a moment to look at his companion, Alfred watched transfixed at the way the different lights lit up certain angles of his face.

"Are we even allowed to be doing this?" He asked after a pleasant moment of silence.

Arthur shrugged and didn't look at him, making Alfred feel slightly disappointed. "Don't really care. I got those near July just so I could fire them for tonight."

"Do you do this often?"

"Always at home, normally with my family. We fire some in the garden then go to a big display on the same day or the next, depending how busy we all are. Usually burn a Guy as well."

Alfred didn't want to ask.

As watched the last few late bloomers fizzle off in different directions Alfred decided it was time for him to be a bit daring, and so inched closer to Arthur, close enough so that their sides were touching. He hesitated a bit, judging what to do next based on Arthur's reaction. Finding none of violence or death to his person, he gently placed his hand on the Briton's. Arthur blushed and his hand twitched, but he didn't move and just kept his eyes firmly on the sky ignoring Alfred completely, who grinned and turned back to the sky as well.

When the fireworks had finally finished, they sat in silence for a while watching the stars. However, it seemed Arthur's brain had finally caught up with the nerves in his hand and quickly removed it from under Alfred's before standing up, dusting himself off and walking off to pick up the remains of the fireworks. Alfred stood but stayed where he was, feeling success in that tonight he had made some progress in cracking the shell that was Arthur Kirkland.

* * *

><p>The car ride back was uneventful, both slowly warming up with the help of the car's heater and thus causing them both to become sleepy. Alfred had brought a different car with him today, an old ford that he had found and fixed himself that was his secret pride and joy.<p>

Arriving back at Arthur's, Alfred stretched his arms and nudged the other blond in the passenger seat. Arthur blinked and looked around; he hadn't really noticed they'd stopped.

"Well, thank you for coming today, Alfred. I appreciate it."

Alfred waved his thanks aside. "Nah, no problem dude. You're not that bad a person to spend time with, and you saved me from Mattie's whinging."

Arthur frowned but nodded, accepting that was all he was going to get as a thank you for the evening and turned to get out of the car. He heard Alfred step out too and turned towards him, allowing himself to be hugged by the quick moving American as a goodbye and was soon enveloped into a strong pair of warm arms.

Arthur found it quite alarming actually, looking back, but he couldn't remember who initiated it or even how it happened. All he knew was that it was Bonfire night, he was being kissed by Alfred and the most alarming was that he wasn't even attempting to pull away. There must really be something seriously wrong with him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Howdy<br>**

**Yay for the longer chapter this time XD Boooooo for it taking me so long to update, almost three weeks orz. Why is it mostly in Alfred's POV, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy? D: I shall be reverting to Arthur's soon though, don't worry :P**

**Does it seem like they're moving too fast? D: I dunno...I have a feeling something's wrong, whether they're out of character (please put me out of my misery and tell me if I am) Or that it's going too fast or slow to be normal...Help :U**

**I think out of Alfred's friends, I see Jake as the leader, the sly cunning one who knows a bit too much in how to get what he wants. Neil is the drunken joker of the group, never taking anything seriously whilst Tony is that friend who everyone wonders why they hang around with them. He's the bastard, and Alfred's well...Alfred XD Poor darling. And yay for a bland, boring description on where Arthur lives~ Whoo, didn't that random lump of text make a difference to the story :I It seems I don't have much faith in my writing abilities today...the last chapter just feels wrong XD  
><strong>

**Sometimes, it's so hard not to write Fr/Uk that it comes very close to hurting me D: **

**Blackcat: ****Thanks for another review, I'm glad that you're enjoying it :D And I know, poor Canada and Wales...forever forgotten XD**

**annonymusxD:**** Thanks for reviewing! :D A nice helping of US/UK is enough to brighten anyone's day I think :P**

**Thanks for reading and being such wonderful readers, please review and let me know what you thought, it's the only way I can improve :D  
><strong>

**Thanks again!**** x**


	7. Classic cars

**Warnings for language.**

* * *

><p><strong>Classic cars<strong>

Arthur's brain had currently shut down and was probably off taking a holiday somewhere nice and warm, like Spain or Hawaii. To be honest, it didn't really matter where it was, because all Arthur cared about was that it wasn't currently in his head, working and doing things that normal brains do. He knew this because kissing Alfred outside in the freezing cold on the 5th of November wasn't a normal thing for him to do, at all. At first, his tingling lips and his numb brain were all he could feel as he was having trouble remembering what happened a few seconds prior. What was he doing again? The inky blackness of memories a few seconds before was a slight distraction though, and slowly all of his senses started to return to full working order. He could feel Alfred's hand on the nape of his neck, pulling his head in closer. He could feel some of Alfred's hair tickle the shell of his left ear and he could feel the bite of the wind on his right cheek as well as feeling another hand snaking around his waist. He felt Alfred's lips pressing on his and his own mouth responding to his partner's movements. With a flash, he realised exactly what he was doing and pulled back in shock, earning a disappointed look from Alfred.

He spluttered slightly and tried to get his mouth to form words to explain what he'd done and why, but his mouth wouldn't seem to produce anything coherent. Alfred stood watching Arthur's on-going internal war for a few seconds, watching his face even through the dim light around them from the nearby lamp, flush many variations of red as he tried to make sense of what just happened. It only lasted a few seconds before the awkward pause was broken (though to Arthur it felt like so many hours), but it gave Alfred time to think of his next course of action. Now, he could either A, brush it off and pretend that nothing had happened, allowing him to hopefully go back to the strange type of friendship they had managed to build up together. Now, this defiantly wasn't good (Being friends was _defiantly_ the wrong way to be going at this point,) but it was better than losing his chance altogether. However, this seemed too cowardly and he quickly thought up Plan B, take advantage of Arthur's shock and kiss him again and hopefully get him to kiss back and proclaim his undying love for his amazing hero boyfriend~

No, that was stupid. Was he planning on being murdered tonight? Didn't think so. That left Plan C, wait to see what Arthur would say next and plan his next move from there. That plan meant that Arthur had to actually say something useful, which at this point seemed highly unlikely. Alfred sighed and brought up his hand to rub the back of his neck to break their silence, a childish habit he still displayed when he was nervous and stepped slightly closer to Arthur.

"Hey Arti- Arthur, I'm kinda, well- I just…" He trailed off and stared at the ground. Damnit, what happened to all of his plans? He couldn't remember any of them as nerves started to take over. Was it over already? Had he ruined it all by moving too fast? Why wasn't Arthur _saying_ anything? Couldn't he just _say _something, this would be so much easier if he did, so why was he just standing there staring at him? His mind's inner ramblings were cut off suddenly when he noticed Arthur tentatively move over to stand closer to him, closing their distance to come and kiss him gently and slowly on his lips, as if unsure as to what exactly he should be doing now. Alfred was just glad he wasn't the only one feeling like that and kissed back enthusiastically, happy that he'd been allowed to continue what they'd started. He knew what to do now; he'd done this part before. That spontaneous first kiss wasn't supposed to happen yet, he could've scared Artie away by freaking him out and it would have all been over before Alfred had even started. This part he understood, not the words nor the emotions or the panicked, nervous heartbeats that went along with it, those things hadn't happened before when he'd kissed someone. That was all strange and completely new, causing Alfred to have felt out of his depth.

Feeling safer now he knew where he was and could think again, Alfred pulled away slowly to look the Englishman in the eyes. Arthur had diverted his eyes away and appeared slightly shocked at himself and actions, but thankfully not regretful of them that Alfred could see.

"Well, that was unexpected."

"Shut it." Arthur huffed, still not looking at him, cheeks flaring again in embarrassment. He didn't know what to say or do now. Was he nervous?

Alfred laughed and slowly slid his arms around Arthur's waist again to slowly rock him side to side. Arthur responded to the foreign movement by angrily trying to swat away the arms, but still not trying to move away. Alfred took this as Arthur's funny way of accepting what had just happened and ploughed onwards.

"So, did that just make us official now or something?"

Arthur stopped fighting the arms resting (quite comfortably) around his stomach to glance up at the American.

"Did you just ask me out?"

"Err…."

"Because that was pathetic."

Alfred huffed and withdrew his arms. "Well I didn't see you doing anything better, standing there all weird and silent and blushin'."

"I was not blushing!" Arthur retorted angrily, stepping away slightly. Suddenly, Alfred laughed.

"What? What's funny about this?"

"That we've gone in almost a full circle in less than a second." Alfred grinned and shuffled towards Arthur again, who didn't step away. "So, does it?"

"Does it what? Don't ask random questions without stating what you're asking."

Alfred ignored the grammar lesson and rolled his eyes. "You know, make us official."

"I thought that's what your intentions were, considering you kept hounding me."

"Since when have I hounded you? You asked me out today."

"That is irrelevant."

Alfred ignored him and pressed on. "So, are we?"

"Geez, what is it with you Americans, why do you have to state aloud things that are so obvious? Can't you be happy with just knowing?"

"Cos if you say it, it makes it more real and you can't be misunderstood." Alfred offered as an explanation. By which, he meant _he_ needed to understand, _he_ needed to be sure Arthur considered them official, that there was nothing that Alfred could misunderstand.

Arthur huffed. "How unusually serious of you. If you must hear it, then _yes_ we are official. Not that it makes any difference at all. And I'm never saying that again."

Alfred beamed and tried not to cheer. "Deal."

Arthur shook his head in exasperation and looked towards his flat. "Well, I'll be off then. I've got to do work before my deadline tomorrow."

"Sure! I'll text you tomorrow, yeah?" Without waiting for an answer, Alfred wrapped his arms around Arthur again, pulling him into another strong bear grip of a hug. "Night, and thanks for askin' me out tonight, Artie."

"Arthur. You had to ruin the moment didn't you, twat?" Arthur grumbled into his shoulder.

Alfred said nothing, but pecked him quickly on the lips still grinning happily. "See ya later."

Arthur nodded but didn't say anything and stepped out of the hug before turning and walking away into the entrance of his block of flats. He paused at the door to give a quick half wave to Alfred, which he returned, then he then entered his passcode, opened the door and disappeared. Alfred waited until he was completely out of sight before getting back into his car and quickly driving away in the direction of home. After a while he pulled the car over and turned off the engine. He'd done it. They were actually going out officially, not just this dancing around each other thingy they'd been doing for the past week or so. Alfred couldn't believe his luck, but just sat there in his car thinking about what they'd done that night. He then let out a small cheer for himself and fist pumped, Arthur had kissed him! He'd been seriously worried there for a moment when Arthur didn't say anything though, he thought he'd blown it with them kissing so out of the blue but obviously he was better at this 'proper' dating thing than he'd given himself credit for. Smirking in satisfaction, Alfred started the car's engine up and pulled away neatly to re-join the traffic on the main road. Now the hardest bit was over, all he had to do from now on was act all boyfriendy for six months and that's it, done. He'd made good progress overall, the real thing began now. Hopefully Mattie wouldn't bitch too much at him when he got home.

Arthur meanwhile, was sitting in a tattered old armchair in his living room thinking. With Francis still being out, this gave him a rare opportunity to just _think_ in silence without something or other distracting him. What had he just done? He had actually said yes to Alfred. This was very unlike him, back home he'd be the one asking out others, he certainly wasn't shy when it came to things like this, not at all. Sometimes he'd even lead them on for a bit before saying yes or letting them down, he'd never just flat out agreed to someone before. Maybe it was because this wasn't like things he'd had back in England, saying the word 'official' did make it different, made it serious rather than just playful dates and whatever happened after them. Alfred himself made it different as well; there was still something odd with him that Arthur couldn't quite put his finger on, something just _there_ that didn't sit too well with him. He was really annoyed that he couldn't quite figure out what, so maybe this 'official' thing would allow him to. But why did he even care? Alfred could be who he wanted, it was no right of Arthur's to go poking into things that had nothing to do with him. Maybe Arthur was just over thinking things, as Francis would agree he had a tendency to do, Alfred didn't really seem like the type of person to fuck around like that. Well, one side of his personality anyway.

He'd never acted like that again since their first date, always bubbly and cheerful and happy to see him. And yet…

And yet sometimes, he'd zone out of the conversation when Arthur was speaking, like he was bored or had found something better to look/ think about, or he'd redirect the conversation towards something he wanted to talk about instead, leaving whatever Arthur had wanted to say or had said seeming insignificant in comparison. Even when they'd gone out to the cinema, Arthur once or twice had caught him glancing at a woman or man walking past and watched him hide down a smirk. The rest of the time together had been so nice and normal though, that Arthur had brushed it aside and chosen not to say anything, he didn't really know him that well after all. As they spoke and texted more though, the more Alfred's character didn't seem solid, it was inconsistent and it seemed as though he didn't really want to be there spending time with him. Too false somehow.

Arthur groaned and rested his head in his hands. He was overcomplicating things, Alfred was not planning some master plot or trying to take anything from him, they'd gone out a few times and kissed a few times. That was all, there was nothing else. Why would Alfred spend or try to spend so much time with him if he didn't like him? It didn't make any logical sense. It didn't matter much anyway, it wasn't as though he had anything to lose from his relationship and he wasn't even going to stay in America for ever. He therefore had no real reason to worry and should let whatever come as it may.

Resolving to put it all out of his mind, Arthur stood up and went into the kitchen. Tea makes everything seem better.

* * *

><p>On Monday, Alfred went into work feeling extremely excited to tell Jake that he'd finally managed to get Arthur to go out with him, having managed not to call him over his weekend when he knew he was busy (which he knew Jake hated). He had found him hunched over his desk, a pile of paper work already being worked on with a giant mug of coffee freshly made near the computer screen and had launched into what had happened on Friday night. The reaction he received however was not one that he had anticipated.<p>

"Is that it?"

Alfred looked confused. "Huh?" Where was the praise for what an amazing job he'd managed to do?

Jake signed and rolled his eyes and sighed. Alfred could be so dense at times.

"You've been seeing this man for what, a month now? And you've only just go him to go out with you?"

"Well, yeah but-"

"You haven't even fucked yet?"

Alfred supressed a wince at the harsh wording. "I've been taking it slow; he's not as open as other people I've gone out with."

Jake rolled his eyes. "Slow doesn't mean snail's pace dude, this is like your slowest ever? What is he, an ice queen or something? Or a virgin?"

"I dunno, we haven't got that far yet…" Alfred himself didn't know what Arthur had done or whom he'd been with before they'd met, it hadn't crossed his mind before now and he was starting to kick himself for not asking if he was at least single. What is he wasn't?

Jake looked shocked. "What have you been doing this past month?"

"Been on dates and stuff." Alfred said indignantly, it felt as though he was being told off at school. So much for doing an awesome job.

Jake shook his head and chuckled. "So, when you said you kissed him Friday, you mean that was your first time kissing him at all? Geez Alfred, I thought you'd be somewhere by now."

"I am somewhere! It's lasted longer than most other relationships I've been in." He protested.

Jake laughed. "That's because normally you just do it and go or they leave you afterwards. Hey, maybe that's it; you're just shit in bed!"

Alfred blushed and stared angrily at the floor.

"Alfred? Oh come on, I'm only joking. You're not gonna go off and sulk now are ya?" He frowned as he observed that, yes, Alfred did fully intend on doing that and sighed, patting his friend the shoulder. "Lighten up, would ya? Look, all I'm saying is that it just seems a bit slower than usual is all, not that there's anything wrong with you. Probably him who's making it difficult, right?"

Alfred nodded. Well it was true; Arthur _was_ difficult to talk to.

"Well then. What're you doing after work today?"

Happier now that he was back on an easier conversation, Alfred almost visibly brightened. "Nothing, why?"

"We're gonna go for a couple drinks."

"Sure! Why though?"

Jake shrugged. "Why not?"

* * *

><p>On the 22nd, it had been more than two weeks since they had become official and it still surprised Arthur that he had been 'seeing' Alfred for almost a month now. Having only met Alfred outside a nightclub, he had always assumed that it was meant to be a one hit wonder for sex or a way to kill time, so it had honestly surprised him that Alfred was seemingly intent on them being somewhat serious.<p>

And intent he was. Every morning since they'd last met Alfred had sent him a text either wishing him well for the day, a what he liked to call, 'a wake up joke', a little snippet of a conversation they'd had the night before, or a random suggestion of meeting up later that day. Arthur was barely able to admit this to himself, but he was starting to look forward to finding his next one when he woke up. Alfred had also taken him out to dinner again, (somewhere of Arthur's choice this time which he was thankful for) and Arthur himself had suggested they meet up for a walk during Alfred's lunch break when he himself had a day off. The more time he spent with Alfred the more he started to confirm that he had been over analysing him before. Alfred seemed a little too cheery at times but that was probably just who he was, he was a cheery person who liked to laugh and smile a lot but didn't seem all that false at all. Arthur was starting to wonder why he'd even had suspicions about him in the first place, as they were starting to seem completely unfounded.

But of course, Francis had started to dig into what Arthur was doing. Arthur swore that as soon as he started something new or seeing someone new Francis wanted to know all about it. All of it, down to the very last tiny detail. Rather annoyingly as well, (cancel that, Arthur wanted to strangle the bastard) Francis was probably enjoying it more than Arthur himself was and had excitedly told the rest of his trio as soon as he found out. He had only found out in the first place because he looked through Arthur's phone which he had stupidly left unlocked one evening. The Frog bastard. That week at work, he had left him post-it notes all over his desk wishing him well on his new relationship and had thrown rose petals over him at one point whilst loudly announcing it to the entire office staff on that floor. In retaliation Arthur had stolen all of his hair products whilst he wasn't looking and had poured them all down the bathroom sink.

Currently however, Arthur was trying to work on some research for his office manager instead of killing the Frenchman buzzing around his desk like he really wanted to do.

"Are you going anywhere nice tonight?"

Ignore him.

"Arthur? Mon petit~"

Ignore him.

"Ignoring me isn't going to do anything, you know."

Ignore it.

Francis heaved a dramatic sigh and flopped down into the chair next to him. "Why do you feel the need to be so cruel to me, sourcils?"

Ignore the fucker, Arthur, you can do it.

Francis stretched across the deck and started flicking his arm. Arthur mentally congratulated himself for still typing and not committing mass murder. Suddenly however, the arm started to slip lower and lower and suddenly before he knew it he was being groped. He pushed himself back from his desk with a small yelp and stood up, now towering over a very smug looking Francis.

"What do you want, you complete and utter failure of a decent human being." It was not a question. It was said more like an order. Francis however only sat up straight and blew a kiss at him.

"Good afternoon to you too~"

"Why are you even here, go and do your work or go and bother someone else."

"Because no one else is as fun to bother as you are, cher." Arthur scowled and made to give him a thwack around the head when a small cough interrupted him. Arthur's floor manager was stood hovering rather awkwardly behind him.

"Mr Kirkland, I don't know what sort of conduct our British partner company has, but here we do not allow assault on fellow employees under any circumstances."

"Y-yes sir, but he-"

"And did you manage to get the research done I asked for?"

"I'm almost done, about a page away from what you specified."

"I do remember asking for it around this time?"

"Sorry sir, I'll have it done shortly."

The other man nodded stiffly. "See that you do."

As soon as he was gone, Arthur turned around to send a withering glare Francis' way, who in return only help up his hand in mock surrender looking slightly sheepish. "Pardon moi. Your higher ups are bastards compared to mine, you know. My office manager is absolutely wonderful to me."

Arthur sat down and resumed his typing. "That's because you slept with her."

"If you slept with yours, maybe your situation would improve slightly, non?"

Arthur gave a frustrated sigh. "What do you want, Francis?"

"I just wanted to know if you were going out tonight again."

"What the fuck is it to you?"

Francis was luckily used to such abuse. "Arthur, you know if your language gets any worse your tongue will soon fall out. But I only wanted to know because I'm doing the shopping today, or have you already forgotten that."

"Of course not, bastard." He had.

"Well that means I shall be cooking again, so is there anything other than that hideous black pudding that you want?"

"No."

Francis stood and poked the Brit on the head. "I shall be off then, seeing as I, unlike you, have nothing left to do here. Adieu~"

With that he flounced out, not before winking at a nearby young co-worker who blushed happily in response, leaving Arthur to his work related miseries.

Arthur arrived home quite late that evening after having being forced to take on extra work for a fellow employee and then getting stuck in traffic on the journey back. Francis was already home, sitting quite sombrely on the sofa as if waiting for him.

"What's with you?" he asked, not that he cared or anything.

Francis looked at him and gestured towards the armchair opposite him for Arthur to join. Arthur did so and rested against the chair's backrest feeling it sag beneath him. Great, this was going to collapse soon too.

"The man you are seeing, he is Alfred F. Jones, is he not?"

Arthur narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "He is, why?"

Francis crinkled his brow into a frown then and took his time before answering. "I met him in town today when I was shopping."

Arthur's eyes lit up slightly at the mention of this however managed to keep his face neutral. "Oh?"

Francis noticed it anyway.

"Oui, I was in a café and he popped in for a 'coffee run' as he called it. He came over and started chatting." He smiled cheekily then. "I didn't know you were going around showing off photos of me to people, Arthur~"

"Tch, as if bastard. He caught your caller ID when you rung me last time we met up and asked who it was. It's weird that he remembered you though."

"Sure, mon petit. If you say so, though we all know you fancy my beautiful face."

Arthur glared at him.

"Anyway, I didn't know it was the Jones' boy you were going out with."

"What does it matter?"

"Well, I've _heard _things, lapin, apparently he's rather promiscuous with his partners."

Arthur thought of the Alfred he saw and knew and he really didn't seem that type of person at all. "Are you sure it's the same one?"

Francis nodded. "I am sure, his photo's on the company's website and his reputation is rather a hard one to miss. In fact I'm surprised that you haven't already heard of it."

"Why are you telling me this?"

Francis shrugged. "I don't know, for all you know I may actually care about what could happen to your sorry British self after all. But we both know that can't possibly be true as you are such a hideous person to me."

Arthur tucked his legs underneath him and picked up the remote to turn the T.V on. "Well, I appreciate it but I prefer to form my own opinions of people, thank you."

Francis looked at him, trying to read an expression on his face but gave up when it became obvious that Arthur wasn't going to give anything more away and sighed through his nose. "I'll go and start my wondrous cooking then."

Arthur said nothing.

* * *

><p>Arthur and Alfred met up again four days later on Arthur's Friday off. Bored and slightly determined, Alfred had rung Arthur in the morning and had asked if he wanted to and hang out for a bit at his. After a long day yesterday of Francis, Gilbert camping on his sofa (apparently his cousin had kicked him out over something to do with a stash of magazines, Arthur really didn't want to know), and working from home Arthur had gladly accepted and had agreed to meet him around lunchtime. Armed with directions, he had set off walking using it as an excuse to get out of the house early and was at first quite optimistic. This however drained slightly when he started to turn in to Alfred's section of town. Tall, dark, and daunting buildings towered everywhere and grew more in frequency and height as he headed further into New York. He hadn't realised how much on the fringes he himself was living and was getting slightly more wary as to how much money Alfred actually had. After a while he turned a block and found Alfred himself standing on the pavement waiting for him. He waved and jogged up to Arthur, wrapping him in a tight hug before pecking him full on the lips. Arthur flushed red and pulled away spluttering.<p>

"What was that for!"

"What, can't I even give you a kiss hello?"

"Yes, but we're in public!"

"Pssh, Artie no one cares really." Alfred was starting to catch on that whilst not ashamed of his sexuality at all, Arthur had a 'thing' about public displays of affection. It was weird, not that Alfred really cared though as he couldn't mess up anything if he didn't have to kiss or hug him all the time. He was fun to rile up with surprise kisses or hugs though, especially when he went all red like now.

"Well I care!"

"Whatever. I thought you might be lost or not know my apartment or something so I thought I'd bring you up myself."

Arthur muttered something (probably not nice) under his breath but Alfred paid no notice, and instead took his hand and led him to the apartment block.

* * *

><p>Alfred's apartment was huge. This was the only thing that was running through Arthur's mind when he arrived inside and stood still looking around the place in a sort of dumbstruck awe. Alfred waved a hand in front of his face.<p>

"Yo! Anyone there?"

Arthur started and frowned. "What on earth are you doing?"

"Making sure that you're still in the land of the living is all dude."

"I most certainly am I can assure you. But I didn't know you lived somewhere so…big."

"Well, yeah." Alfred looked confused. "Where did you think I lived then?"

Arthur shrugged and moved further into the hallway whilst taking off his coat which was quickly taken by Alfred. "I don't know really, but I certainly wasn't expecting something this big."

Alfred laughed and chucked his coat over a chair in what Arthur assumed to be a dining room. "Dude, it's not that big seriously. I mean, it is compared to yours, but not that big at all around here."

Arthur looked dubious, the size of the living room was bigger than his and Francis' kitchen put together.

"Common then, Artie, I'll give you a quick tour 'cos you're obviously not gonna do nothin' else till you see it all."

With that, he grabbed the Brit's hand and began to drag him through the rooms. Arthur winced at the choice of grammar but allowed himself to be lead through all of the rooms in Alfred's home. Unlike his own flat, Alfred's looked as though a whole gaggle of teenagers had lived here, had a party and then had left again. His kidnapper caught him looking at one of many piles of God knows what when he was introduced to the 'games room' and looked suddenly sheepish.

"Heh, yeah it's all a bit messy. I get a cleaner in once a week to help out and stuff but she was sick this week so nothing's really been done. I completely forgot what it looked like to other people when I asked you over."

Arthur stared at him incredulously. "You have your own cleaner?"

Alfred once again looked confused. "Yeah, why?"

Arthur shook his head. "Never mind."

Alfred shrugged and grabbed his hand again, pulling him into a final room. "Well, here's the most awesomest room here, my room."

Arthur rolled his eyes but stepped inside what looked to be a bomb disposal sight.

"Jesus Alfred, there nearly isn't a floor to be seen in here!"

Alfred pushed him further into the room and belly flopped onto the bed which caused a small pile of clothes to dislodge itself and end up joining some brethren on the floor. "But that's how you know a room's loved, duh. Most people have rooms like this; your apartment was just weird."

Arthur huffed. "My flat's cleanliness is not weird at all. Not counting the live-in Frog, of course."

Alfred laughed and pulled Arthur down to join him on the bed. Arthur flailed, trying to break free but Alfred held him there fast.

"Alfred! Let me go, all your stuff's adding to the floor! And oh dear God, what am I laying on."

Alfred peeked over his shoulder. "I don't think you really want to know, Artie. But at least the bed's free now, huh?"

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Hardly free."

They lay there for a while in a comfortable silence, Alfred absentmindedly playing with locks of Arthur's hair who just accepted it, too comfortable to stop him or bother moving. Suddenly, the tranquillity was broken by Alfred gasping audibly and suddenly jumping up, almost throwing Arthur to the floor.

"Fuck sake Alfred, what the bloody hell-"

"I forgot! Come on, old man, we need to move!" Alfred was hopping up and down excitedly waiting for Arthur get himself up off the bed without giving into the temptation of pulling him again.

"What? Why now?"

"Because!" Alfred whined. As soon as Arthur stood (which so wasn't quick enough for Alfred) he was once again taken by the hand and dragged outside to the apartment elevator with Alfred barely stopping in time to grab their coats and lock the door behind them. Complaining quite loudly now about where and why he was being dragged, Arthur was led all the way back to the bottom of the apartment block and then out again onto the main street where he finally managed to wrench his arm free.

"Alfred, for God's sake where the bloody hell are we going?"

"I need to show you something really important."

"Well why couldn't you have shown me when we were down here before?"

Alfred rubbed the back of his neck. "Err, 'cos I forgot and I really wanted to show you my apartment?"

Arthur glared and opened his mouth again to probably complain but Alfred put his hand up to silence him. "It doesn't matter dude, we're here now and we have to walk to it anyway so you may as well enjoy it!"

Arthur scowled but followed when Alfred stated to walk off. Alfred didn't know why he wanted to show Arthur this, but felt like it was something that he could share. Arthur wasn't that bad actually if you got to know him, if a bit grouchy but could be quite fun to hang out with under the circumstances.

"It's not far anyway but we can get a hotdog or something on the way, yeah?" Alfred smiled at him then which caused Arthur's stomach to do a little flop. He said nothing but nodded in what seemed to Alfred to be of acceptance, so he continued to lead the way. During the journey, Alfred leant over and took Arthur's in his own and squeezed it gently and then waited to see what the consequence would be. To his joy, Arthur didn't try to tug it back but left it where it was, though he did have a pink flush across his cheeks. Alfred reminded himself that it could easily be from the cold though.

Soon they arrived at a garage type storage facility after stopping at a burger stand Alfred had insisted on eating at. Arthur stopped, confused but Alfred pulled him forward into a side door and left him by the entrance as he turned on the lights.

"Sorry it's a bit dusty in here, doors don't really get opened up much in the winter time." Alfred's voice was echoic and Arthur squinted as the lights turned on with a flicker to illuminate the room.

Following the direction Alfred disappeared into, Arthur walked forward and through an office area before entering a medium sized garage with three cars parked side by side. Two of them were covered with an old white sheet each that draped around them and onto the floor, not giving away their make or age. The other however was uncovered and was tatty and broken looking as well as having Alfred standing over it, running his hand over the bumped bonnet lovingly. He looked up when he heard Arthur approach and beckoned him over.

"Look at these!"

"These are what you wanted to show me?"

"Yeah!" His face fell. "Why, don't you like them?"

Arthur hastily shook his head. Allred had a horrible habit that he was probably aware of, of looking like a kicked puppy when he was disappointed or wanted something from you.

"No! Not at all, they're really beautiful, Alfred." _The one I can see anyway, though it's broken up. "_But I though you said you wanted to show me something important."

Alfred laughed and came round to Arthur's side of the car. "They are important Artie! This is what I really love doin' with my work, y'know? Fixing up old cars and makin' them work again!" He strode past Arthur and pulled off the sheet from the middle car.

"This one is a 1951 Mg TD, I found it when I was looking through one of our warehouses that shipped to Europe. They were gonna throw it away 'cos apparently it was too busted up and stuff, but I bought it and brought it back here and now look at her!"

The car was really old looking to Arthur, the rounded wheel arches were really large compared to the cars of today with a thin steering wheel and shiny black paint. Alfred stood stroking one of the wing mirrors with pride, his face alight with boyish glee. "She works perfectly now, I take her out on some of the back roads every now and again to keep her working and to show her off. That other car next to you with the sheet on is a 1967 Ford Mustang Convertible which is in better condition, but this one's my favourite. And that other one all mangled in the corner is one I'm plannin' on fixing next."

Arthur walked around the car to where Alfred stood and touched the smooth paint near the front window. "Did you paint them all as well?" He asked with a hint of admiration.

"Yup! You can help me with that one now if you wanna? I didn't have much else planned today for ya…"

Arthur rolled up his sleeves. "What do you want me to help with?"

* * *

><p>They stayed at the garage for over three hours talking animatedly as they worked or sometimes falling into a companionable silence. They then walked back to Alfred's, who once again made a grab for Arthur's hand causing him to blush. When they did finally return they did nothing but laze around indoors watching any film that Alfred deemed 'too awesome not to see'. He seemed scandalised that Arthur had not seen most of them and set about hurriedly to try and, as he called it, 'educate him in the art' of films. He did not seem to mind whether Arthur criticised any of them but was quick to defend the superhero classics. They ended up slowly curling closer together as time went by and were now sharing a large bowl of microwaved popcorn balanced on a cushion between them.<p>

They were halfway through their fourth film, an old cowboy classic of Alfred's, when a large rumble of thunder managed to drown out the sounds from the television and startle them both.

Arthur looked up and the window and blinked in surprise, he hadn't realised how dark it had become. Alfred paused the film and looked at him.

"You walked here, didn't ya?"

"You. But yes I did. I'd better set off now before it gets much worse, I hadn't realised I'd been out so long." He made to get up but Alfred hooked his arm around Arthur's and kept him seated.

"You can't go home in that; it's a storm Artie, not a rain shower. I mean, I know you're used to rain in England…"

"Alfred." He warned.

"But this ain't any old rain y'know. They've been predicting some big storms for ages now." He gasped excitedly, a plan formulating in his head. "You can stay here! I have room and some spare clothes and stuff; you can just go back tomorrow!"

Arthur looked very sceptical. "It's okay Alfred, I can always ask the frog to pick me up as he still owes me a favour."

"Didn't you say that you had your friend Gilbert over too?"

Arthur grimaced. "Where can I sleep?"

A simple text to Francis later (he was a gentleman after all, he couldn't just stay somewhere else without saying anything as that would be ever so rude,) Arthur had settled back on the sofa next to Alfred who was currently in a state of shock. What had he just done? Arthur was sleeping _here, _with him, in the same apartment, and was not leaving until tomorrow. He didn't plan to say that at all, he just didn't really want Arthur walking home during a storm and had blurted out that he stay here with him. Inwardly kicking himself, Alfred decided that it was on things like this that he should defiantly think ahead about what he was going to say.

He was now incredibly aware of Arthur's weight as he rested gently on his shoulder, aware of him softly breathing in and out and his own heart beating very loudly in his chest. It was so _loud; _he wondered how amazing it as that Arthur couldn't hear it. He wasn't concentrating on the television, he could hear its droning buzzing in the background but it seemed really hard to focus on, like hearing the voices through old speakers that muffled its clarity.

_Arthur actually looks cute laying there like that._

Oh God, had he really just thought that? Alfred tried to banish every related feeling from his head, trying harder than ever to concentrate on the television but they kept popping back in and whizzing around his brain. This was getting ridiculous; it was so unlike him it was becoming creepy.

Arthur meanwhile, was having his own personal battle. Aware now that he would be sleeping in the same house as Alfred was making his feel slightly weird, he actually didn't know what to think about the situation as his though were getting all jumbled up the more he tried to think about them. He was now trying to clear his mind completely and concentrate on something else and so was completely oblivious to Alfred's confusion.

They watched the rest of the cowboy film in silence, occasionally someone would make a comment on the acting or the plotline, (usually Arthur), but for the most part the silence was a comfortable, homey one, so when Alfred stood up to change the DVD Arthur actually had to remind himself where he was.

Alfred didn't pay any attention to what the next film was about when he chose it; he just picked the one at the bottom of the stack and hurriedly stuck it in. Turning around he found Arthur slouched slightly from losing his head rest watching him with a calm and contented look on his face. It felt so weird to look at him, his heart was beating faster and his mind was finding it hard to look directly into his eyes and stay there. Alfred stood and made a quick decision to just let go and let his body decide what to do for him, it was a lot better and easier than attempting to over think irrelevant things after all. And this was how Arthur found himself suddenly being kissed on the lips with a rather forceful kiss, slightly chapped lips ghosting over and nipping his own and a tongue asking for entry. Without much persuasion he readily opened his mouth and allowed Alfred to deepen his kiss. He was pushed back gently on the sofa as the kiss continued, occasionally being broken when one of them needed air but it remained long and one of the best kisses either of them had ever had. Not that they'd admit that out loud though. Neither of them though much of stopping or questioning why it was happening so sudden, so fast, and both allowed their subconscious to take over their actions with hands becoming wildly tangled in the others hair as they moved.

Slowly a hand made its way downwards from Arthur's shoulder to his trousers, slowly slipping lower and lower until Arthur broke their kiss and put a hand on Alfred's chest causing him to make a noise of disappointment and attempt to kiss Arthur again.

"No, Alfred, wait a second." Arthur was out of breath and his heart was racing. That kiss was amazing; his lips felt raw and tingly and he could feel that his face was flushed and his hair was wilder than before, but the pleasant haze broke through snippets of his weird conversation with Francis and it honestly was now troubling him slightly. It was bad of him to think low of Alfred who had shown no ill intentions towards him at all, yet he had to make sure that his doubts were unfounded and not to stupidly rush into anything he may end up regretting. He hated to ever listen to Francis, but he would rather that than be fucked about later.

Alfred was staring at him from above, looking disappointed that he had been stopped in the middle of things and so now had started to move on to pressing light kisses along Arthur's temple. Arthur pushed him away again and sat up slightly to look at him properly.

"Before we end up going any further, I want to let you know that I am not a quick snog and shag for you to them dump when you get bored."

At Alfred's blank look he sighed and tried again. "I'm not a quick fuck Alfred. And I most certainly don't want to end up like one; I'm far too tired of that."

Alfred looked hurt and for a second Arthur felt really bad about what he'd just said, but he didn't want Alfred to get the wrong idea about him or where this was going. "I wouldn't do that to you Artie; do I really look like that sort of person?"

Arthur leant over and kissed him again on the lips tenderly. "I didn't say you did. I only wanted you to know."

Alfred hummed a response. "What a way to ruin the mood though."

"Shut it."

Arthur was the one on top now, one hand running its way up Alfred's shirt to slide around his back and the other one slipping to his trousers to untighten his belt and fumbling at the buckle.

Alfred broke the kiss a few seconds later, breathlessly asked, "Is this a bad time to ask if you're single?"

Arthur shook his head in exasperation and stood up. "Talk about ruining the mood."

"Wait! Artie, where're ya goin'?"

"Bedroom, I refuse to have sex on your sofa where you knocked over the popcorn earlier."

Alfred gave a small, unnoticeable sigh of relief. "I thought you were gonna walk out or something." Arthur gave a smirk as Alfred stood and took his hand to lead him in the direction of his bedroom, pressing another kiss to the shell of his ear.

"Me? Why would I do that, love? I'd miss the fun."

Alfred laughed and opened the door to let Arthur in first.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Pain. Long author's note is long.<strong>

**This chapter, hurt me. I've never had something so difficult to write before, it just wouldn't be written. D: It was a nasty thing to write where nothing **_**at all**_** happens in the beginning but a large thing happened at the end so it needed to be written for the next part to come along but writer's block is a bastard and asfshdkjghbievgvei I'm sorry orz.**

**Where they went for a walk, I really wanted them to go to a pub as that's where everyone goes here for a chat, a casual date or anything social at all ever, but I knew the likely hood of them doing this in New York and with Alfred's current temperament that it was very unlikely indeed. I really should have set this in England, I really should have.**

**But yes, to me it seems really just…flat I guess so any suggestions of how to improve it would be greatly appreciated. D: It was the worst to write, taking over three weeks to write the actual chapter and even longer to get started on it, yet was the longest by far. :I Grrrr…**

**Also, a random thing I have noticed in fan fictions is that Arthur says 'for Queen's sake!' quite a lot. I can say that now, honestly and truthfully, I have never used, nor heard anyone use this expression ever. :/ Where has this come from? I wonder...**

**Blackcat: Thanks for reviewing again! I'm glad that you're enjoying it so far. ^-^**

**CelestielCiel: I didn't really update soon did I? -_-' I'll try to update a LOT faster next time, but I'm glad that you're interested with this. :P **

**But yes, please review to tell me what you thought, how I could improve, any mistakes I've made or anything really. :D**

**I hope you enjoyed reading and thanks again to all of my wonderful readers~**

**Heroes~**


	8. Spanish wisdom

**Warnings for suggestions of fun times **

* * *

><p><strong>Spanish wisdom and procrastinating Americans<strong>

"You never see us anymore."

"Huh?"

Alfred turned to face the intruder to his office from where he had started to put some files away in a band grey cabinet. He started confused as Jake made his way into his office and slumped ungracefully down onto his chair. _His _chair. Where he was just about to sit. Not cool man.

Jake raised a well-manicured eyebrow at Alfred's unintelligent response and lifted a hand to smooth back a few stray hairs from his forehead after he caught sight of his reflection in the window.

"You. You don't spend any time with us anymore. What the hell's up with that?" He kept his head facing the window, either choosing to avoid Alfred's reaction in fear of finding something he didn't want, or not really caring about it. That or he just really liked the view. Landscape, him, all the same.

"What do you mean I don't? Of course I do! I went out last night with everyone to that office party didn't I?" Alfred exclaimed in confusion; Jake not looking at him was unnerving him slightly, the fact he had no idea what his friend was on about was not helping matters. Alfred groaned inwardly at the thought of last night's escapades though, that club had been way too much, even for him. And then straight to work early the next day? No wonder he drank so much coffee.

Jake groaned and finally turned away from the window to face Alfred again who was still looking very confused. This only made Jake more frustrated.

"I don't mean like that, Alfred. I mean like, I dunno!" Jake swivelled around in the chair Alfred was still waiting to sit on. "You never ask _us_ anymore, you know? We ask you and you come along, sure, but you still decline sometimes and even when we talk to you, you sometimes zone us out and zip off to Alfred world. More often than you usually do, that is."

Alfred frowned as recognition set in. "I still ask you guys sometimes…" He sounded a little unsure though, which to his misfortune Jake picked up on.

"See? You don't even know. When was the last time you volunteered to spend some of your precious time with us outside quick stops at the coffee shop during work? You're with that Arthur person most of the time now."

"You guys dared me to date him! To do that I've kinda gotta spend time with him." Alfred wisely neglected to mention that he was actually starting to look forward to meeting up with the Briton.

"Yeah, but we didn't mean you to spend all your time with him instead of us. We deserve more than 50% of Alfred, y'know. Besides, we're your friends." He reclined in more into the chair, point apparently made and argument won. "And anyway, all you do is moan to us about how weird he is and how picky he is, as well as how much he irritates you. Why would you wanna spend more time with that than us?"

"I've gotta keep it real like a proper relationship thingy though." Alfred replied and leant against the side of his desk, it was obvious Jake wasn't going to leave anytime soon so he resigned himself to perching on an uncomfortably hard surface instead of his nice, soft swivel chair. Might as well sit somewhere. "I have to keep him happy to keep him wanting to out with me."

Jake laughed. "You make it sound like you're his bitch! What, does he top too?" Noting Alfred's quick look of horror before it was skilfully masked away with only a light blush dusting his cheeks Jake snorted in amusement and mock pity and then stood. "Okay, you know what? I don't actually wanna know." He straightened his trousers and brushed imaginary dirt from his blazer before glancing at his slightly wrinkled shirt (from whom, Alfred could only guess), but left it in its sorry looking state. "You seem quite taken with him though, all of a sudden." He tone took a more serious edge to it which even Alfred could pick up on. Jake didn't look up; he just kept staring at a bottom he was fiddling with.

Alfred quickly slipped into _his _vacated seat and pulled himself forward towards his desk and opened his laptop, hiding his face behind the screen. "He's not that bad once you get to know him." The sudden mood change from his companion was putting him on edge, the quick leap from irritated to serious was unusual, even for Jake and Alfred had the sense that he should choose his words carefully. Why his friend was so riled up was still unknown, but Alfred preferred to keep his nose out for now and was quite happy to finish his morning's deadlines confused.

"In more ways than one?" Jake smirked, trying hard to not really doing a very good job of hiding his laughter. The tips of Alfred's ears turned red but he stayed silent, choosing to go with the flow and start typing something on his laptop instead.

Jake observed Alfred's attempt to ignore him as an attempt to probably get rid of him, and chose to go along with it this once; he turned and made to leave Alfred's office whilst fixing his hair again as he moved. Before he left he stopped at the door and stared at Alfred for a while, as if thinking carefully about what he was going to say next. Alfred looked up, confused at his friend's silence and raised an eyebrow as a prompt for Jake to speak.

After a while Jake spoke. "You do still remember that this is a dare, right? It's not actually real."

Alfred opened his mouth and then closed it again.

There was a quick pause that barely felt like anything, yet Jake started to grow concerned at the lack of response and was about to ask again but was cut off by Alfred's answer.

"Of course it isn't. It's just a dare, dude." Alfred gave a small snort through his nose as though amused at Jake's question and rolled his eyes.

Jake smiled; relieved at the answer. "Good. I mean, you're so far out of his league that he'd be a speck far on the horizon miles away from you. If even that. We don't want to lose our hero to some like that, right?" He laughed and made to walk away.

"What is it was though."

Alfred almost question-but-more-of-a-statement caught him off guard and was so soft that he barely heard it. "Huh?"

Alfred avoided meeting his eyes and repeated himself, just a tiny bit louder and just enough for Jake to hear.

"What is it was kinda real ish though. Or if it maybe could turn into something."

Jake gave a wry smile. "But it's not, is it?"

Alfred gave a small smile before giving his usual cheesy grin. "Of course not."

* * *

><p>After Jake left Alfred rested his chin a fist and shut the laptop screen with the other. He wasn't doing anything on it anyway.<p>

He didn't mean anything, when he asked that, it was only an innocent question. More like a, 'what if' kind of thing rather than him actually wanting to know the answer.

What if.

It seemed stuck in his mind, like one of those thoughts you know you're not supposed to think about which only makes you want to ponder over it more.

Of _course_ itwasn't real, of course Arthur didn't mean anything to him in that way. It was just _Arthur, _that weird and slightly crabby dude he had to engage with socially every now and again to keep happy. Sure he wasn't that bad once you got to know him, but that didn't mean Alfred cared for him in_ that_ way. More like a friend whom you slept with every so often.

Alfred groaned and buried his face in his arms, feeling his whole face heat up in embarrassment even though no one was there to see. Well, that had been a wonderful part of his conversation with Jake.

Even Alfred had to admit though, Arthur was good in bed. He hadn't got around to, or really wanted to, ask his new partner how the hell he'd managed to get so experienced. (Especially as it was Arthur, he certainly wasn't the most attractive or socially pleasant person Alfred had met.) Alfred was very surprised, therefore, when Arthur knew just where to kiss, just where to place his hands, just how to pull control of their 'activity' in his direction, in his control. A nip to the collar bone here, a hand gliding just so gently downwards, a small tug at his waistband at just the right moment… Alfred honestly couldn't give up control to his partner fast enough; instead he concentrated on trying not to make too much noise and not to wake his entire building. Not to say that Alfred wasn't good himself, (many girls could testify that) but Arthur was just better than anyone he'd ever been with before. He actually got excited just _thinking_ about what they were going to do or when they were next going to have sex, rather than just finding someone attractive enough to fuck and finding it enjoyable along the way.

He also wasn't that bad company either, really. His humour was the really dry and cynical type that could easily waft right over your head unless you could know what to pick up on but could reduce Alfred to tears with his quick witty retorts and comments on hapless servers and clueless passing strangers. He was also a very good listener and seemed happy to let Alfred do most of the talking during their dates imputing an occasional comment or question here and there. To Alfred's surprise he also had quite a decent taste in music mostly rock or punk rather than classical stuff which Alfred had been expecting of him. Granted many of them were old British bands long since retired but Alfred could appreciate the classics.

So yeah, maybe Arthur was actually kinda cool to be around and maybe he was quite cute if you looked past the eyebrows and stormy nature but that didn't mean anything. It certainly didn't mean Alfred felt for him in _that _way, only that their time spent together was not as painful as he'd first feared it would be.

Mind resolved and somewhat calmed, Alfred straightened up to pop his spine before preparing himself to settle down and actually do some productive work today. Opened an actual work related word document his cleared his mind and started to mindlessly review a new model that had been brought in from France for its suppliers in regards to its new pricing. It was a mindless, boring, and an uncreative soul destroying task that he normally hated with a passion, this time however it was just the distraction he needed.

* * *

><p>Arthur didn't hear from Alfred for a little bit after that, he'd texted him and received either a very short or no reply and every time he logged into Skype Alfred was either mysteriously too busy to talk for long or logged out not too long afterwards. He tried to pass it off by rationalising with himself that either Alfred was really busy or if there was a problem he'd done nothing wrong and if Alfred didn't want to see him anymore, then that was fine.<p>

Except it wasn't.

He wasn't quite sure when he'd managed to let himself become so _attached_ to the American; no wait, attached wasn't the right word. Used to him, more like. He'd been having at least some form of contact with Alfred at least once a day for a while now and without the odd text messing up a meeting or an early morning phone call waking him up and hour sooner than he would normally be conscious, his day just wasn't the same. Arthur's day just didn't feel _normal_ without some form of American irritation.

He threw his text-less phone against the wall and gave a small smile when it landed with a satisfying thump against the plaster, but scowled when it managed to survive in one piece after his moment of rage. Bloody Nokias, the bastards just don't die. He sighed and decided to put the problem out of his mind for now, after all there was nothing much he could do, if Alfred didn't contact him, he couldn't make him after all.

Arthur lay back on his bed and rolled over into a ball on top of his bedcovers in an attempt to nap a bit before his peace was shattered upon his roommate's return from work. (Having slightly different working days from Francis was a blessing.) However, only after he'd inhaled a deep and calming breath he found it to be covered in very long, silky cat hair left from where the blasted _beast_ had obviously taken to extracting its revenge upon him. A howl of rage, many furious verbal attacks on the entire feline species, and a few chocked sneezes later, Arthur found himself locking the flat door and stomping outside into the crisp evening air, leaving his indestructible phone inside with a hurriedly scribbled note to Francis about his whereabouts getting the shopping done. The fact that they still had a few more days left of food was irrelevant.

The cool air was exactly what he needed and after a few streets of furious stalking, Arthur was able to calm down enough to think once again like a normal person. He felt even better after buying many more black puddings to piss off Francis and 'forgetting' which brand of luxury cat food their primped up snob of a cat like and bought the cheapest crap he could find. By the time he'd finished his pathetic revenge against a (for once) innocent flatmate and a helpless animal and bumped into Antonio, Arthur had completely pushed the 'Alfred incident' out of his mind. The aforementioned Spaniard was seated happily on a bench near a bus stop humming to himself and gave a cheerful wave when he spotted the Englishman*.

Arthur wasn't as close to him as Gilbert or Francis were, seeing as they all worked nearer to each other at the office than he did, but he got along with him well enough and so crossed the road to greet him.

"Arthur! You're out quite late tonight?"

Arthur gave him a small smile. "I just needed a walk. How's the head?"

At the mention of his very unfortunate accident Antonio's smile wavered slightly but didn't drop. "My head's getting better, they've taken the stitches out now, see?" He tilted his head forward and pushed his fringe back from his forehead to allow Arthur to peer in morbid fascination at the quite deep yet healing cut.

With a wince Arthur drew back. "Doesn't it still hurt?"

Antonio shook his head happily and poked the wound with his index finger before Arthur could even think about stopping him. "Nope! The doctor gave me these painkillers to take every day and some other stuff to stop infections, so I can't feel it hurting at all!"

Arthur gave a weak laugh. _That explains quite a few things._

"I should be able to go out with you all again soon 'cos I have money again~" The Spaniard continued on, either ignoring or not noticing his friend's discomfort. "Lovi's talking to me again now too, so we can all have fun together! Will you be taking your new boyfriend with us as well?"

Arthur blushed under Antonio' very innocent but intense gaze and at the mention of the word 'boyfriend'; it made everything sound far too serious for his liking.

"Err… well…"

Antonio gave him a concerned frown and the appearance of a negative mood on him momentarily threw Arthur off thinking of a suitable reply to divert the conversation away from his ailing love life.

"Is everything going okay with you two?"

"Well, I suppose so." Arthur fiddled with the plastic handle of his shopping bag. "Well, I don't know really. We haven't been talking much lately."

Antonio gave him a sad smile before patting his shoulder in a manner which he obviously assumed to be comforting. In actual fact, it rather hurt. But the thought was there.

"You'll be fine."

Arthur huffed. "How do you know?"

"Because you're just like Lovi and me, that's why!"

On Arthur's confused expression he continued. "Sometimes Lovi goes for ages without talking to me and I really want to make it better, or sometimes I really want to ignore him back, but I just can't because otherwise he'll hit me."

"Err..."

"Which means," he ploughed on as though Arthur hadn't interrupted, "that you're both going to end up talking again, one way or another. And if you don't, then obviously he's not worth it."

The two stood in silence for a while as Arthur mulled over the oddly comforting and helpful advice.

"Thank you Antonio, that was… surprisingly philosophical of you."

Antonio grinned at him. "I have my moments." He took out his phone when it gave off a loud beep and gave a horrified gasp. "Ah! I'm going to be late for my dinner with Lovi! I can't believe how long it's been since a bus has been past!"

"You do know the buses stopped running a while ago, right?"

At his friend's quickly paling face and panicked expression, he guessed not.

"Shit! What am I going to do now?" He wailed, frantically scrolling through his contacts to find a soon to be pissed off Italian's number. "I've got to go Arthur, I'll see you later! And don't worry about Alfred; I'm sure it will be fine."

Arthur thanked him seconds before he sprinted away down the road, phone already pushed to his ear. Giving a little sigh but feeling a lot better since before his walk, Arthur took off in a slow pace in the direction of home.

* * *

><p>Francis was not at all happy with his shopping.<p>

"What the hell is this!"

Arthur looked up from his spot on the worn sofa where he'd thrown himself upon his return to the kitchen table where Francis had spread all of his purchases. "Cat food."

Francis gave a cry of indignation and angrily shoved the bag in his face to see. Even though it was Arthur who had bought it and therefore obviously knew what kind it was.

"This is _dry_ cat food; Jean-Luc only eats a good quality _wet _food, not this cheap shit!"

"It's a bloody alley cat Francis, I'm sure it really doesn't care what it gets as long as it eats!"

Francis sent a frustrated noise in his direction as he stomped back to inspect the rest of the shopping. Obviously he'd not had a very good day today. (That cute new intern from downstairs had rejected him; events like these were few and far between.) "And if you buy one more black pudding than we need I swear I'm pouring all of your rum away."

"They're birthday presents!"

"So were my luxury shampoos that you so hatefully disposed of!"

"You told everyone in the office details of my love life!"

"Well you so rarely have one I felt it necessary for people to know that you're not a complete social retard!"

Francis stopped, realising he'd maybe gone a bit too far over some unfavourable items of shopping. He sighed and put his hair up into a pony tail with a ribbon. "What do you want for dinner?"

Arthur gave a deadpan grunt in response and stood, making his way to his room and leaving Francis alone in their shabby kitchen feeling just a little bit guilty.

Once safely away from anything/anyone French, Arthur retrieved his phone lying forlornly on the floor and unlocked it, giving a start when he saw a message from Alfred.

_Hey, soz that ive been quiet and stuff recently,  
>lots happnein you no? Wanna meet up sometime<br>soon? :) x_

8th Dec. 2010 20:37

From: Grammar-less idiot

He tried to tell himself that this little text did not dissipate his foul mood at all in the slightest but his heart betrayed him by beating a little faster and felt his cheeks heating up in response.

Fuck.

He had a problem.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: *Peers around corner to avoid tomatoes* Hello again…<strong>

**Wow, it's been a while, huh? I'm so sorry for taking so long, I'll actually be surprised if anyone's even reading this still ;A; I apologise muchly orz. However, now I've finished school forever and always and I have time before I toddle off to uni so I can now start to update again~ But I've really been gone ages, w****hat's up with all these changes fan fiction, we loved you perfectly how you were before...now I have to find an image. *grumbles***

**I hope this chapter's quality is as up to par as all the others and that I haven't gone too much into ooc territory xD**

*** I've noticed in quite a few fics that British people/ Arthur has been referred to as, the British, the Britain, or the English. Correctly it should be the Briton, the Brit if you're being informal, or the Englishman. :)**

**My chapters are getting shorter. D:**

**To Random Reader- I am never frustrated at people leaving reviews for no reason! Leave as many as you wish, all help me! ^-^ I'm glad you're liking it so far, I'm taking your advice and moving this safely to the T section now to save innocent eyes. Orz I hope this chapter was worth the long wait!**

**Please drop a comment in the new-fangled reviewing section to let me know what you thought or how I can improve. :)  
><strong>

**Thanks for reading and for the amazing support everyone! **

**Heroes~**


End file.
